Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister of State on his new role. Also, this is my first chance to send condolences to Private Seán Rooney's family on his untimely death.

I will focus on just two things that came out of the European Council meeting. One was the call on the Commission to present in early 2023 a strategy at EU level to boost competitiveness and productivity. That call was being made at the same time we had a Minister and a junior Minister appear before us on Committee Stage and say nothing at all about Coillte bringing in investment funds and selling off half our land to them. That has to stop and Sinn Féin has made a call in that regard. The Minister will tell us that these practices enable greater productivity on the part of our foresters. They do not. It is the complete opposite. We are driving foresters and small farmers out of the industry. I implore the Minister of State to talk to his fellow Ministers and try to reverse that decision.

Deputy Andrews talked about the situation in Palestine. I wish to address the dreadful scenes we see coming daily from the Palestinian territories at the moment. It is a continuation of the persecution of the Palestinian people that has been enabled by inaction on the part of this Government, the EU and others. They have sat on their hands and watched the daily slaughter of Palestinian people. Now we hear reports that, in addition to Israeli forces demolishing Palestinian homes, they want to build further settlements there. Israel has broken resolution after resolution and the Government must raise this, especially at EU level. Ireland was a member of the UN Security Council. We wasted that opportunity to raise the slaughter going on in Palestine.

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