Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It has not happened in the Chamber. We have introduced legislation and read the regulations as elected Deputies after the event. We have never had a proactive discussion on it. I challenge any of the Ministers to return to have a proactive and rational debate on how best to ensure we are all in this together and we can all get out of it together.

I can then jump to the back of the document and I see external relations. It is interesting that Israel is not mentioned. When the Taoiseach was being interviewed in Glasgow he said he bumped into the Israeli Prime Minister, which was interesting, and the Israeli Prime Minister was extremely insightful in speaking about Covid-19. I wonder was he extremely insightful on the decision made by Israel just before the Council meeting in designating six human rights organisations as terrorist organisations. Did the bumping into the Israeli Prime Minister allow the Taoiseach to discuss that?

It is interesting to see Israel is not mentioned under the external relations title. As an addition to the document, in a section under three stars, it states that following the Council declaration of 6 December 2018, there was agreement on the fight against antisemitism across policy areas. I fully agree with that. The section welcomes the new EU strategy on "combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life adopted by the Commission". I have absolutely no problem with any of that.

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