Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for their detailed contributions over the past number of hours. The recognition of Palestine has been raised. I will quote directly from the programme for Government, which states that the Government will "honour our commitment to recognise the State of Palestine as part of a lasting settlement of the conflict, or in advance of that, when we believe doing so will progress efforts to reach a two-state solution or protect the integrity of Palestinian territory." In the absence of progress towards a two-state solution, the Tánaiste has repeatedly stated that he would prepare to recommend to the Government recognition by Ireland of a state of Palestine if and when it might be helpful. This is a matter he has discussed regularly with his EU colleagues. The timing and context of any such decision would be affected by the resulting loss of influence this could result in as a result of operating on our own, as many people have suggested, rather than working collectively at international level. We need to balance that and make a judgment call about whether that loss of influence would be matched by a commensurate benefit for the Palestinian people and the positive impact on the peace process and the two-state solution. The judgement is that at present, this is not the case.

During the course of this debate, several people said we should go along and take the lead and that others will follow. That is a point of view. There would be a loss of influence if we do that but we would do it if we felt it was of benefit to the Palestinian people. I have outlined that clearly and that is in the programme for Government. The two-state option has been mentioned here by most people but some people utterly opposed the two-state option in the debate today so we should note that as well.

In terms of the people living in Palestine, the Department deals directly with a number of programmes in that area. It is an area I deal with personally given my responsibility for international development and the diaspora. Nobody asked during this debate, given that there are difficulties, struggles and international law breaking and people are being killed, about what we are doing to help people on a day-to-day basis. Ireland does this all over the world in different regions where there is conflict, pain and suffering and we do it in Palestine as well. This year, Irish taxpayers will provide €16 million to help people directly on the ground in Palestine. It is important we do that. We provide help through education and health programmes, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and other aspects of the UN. Of the money we allocate, €8 million of that goes through a United Nations Relief and Works Agency programme for this calendar year. We also provide €3 million to the Palestinian Authority ministry for education to strengthen its education system. We bring 25 university graduates from Palestine each year to undertake a one-year postgraduate programme such that when they go back, they are better educated and help their people in the future. While the conflict is going on, people are living their daily lives and need a quality of life and we assist in that through our programmes. Notwithstanding the overhanging political conflict, we must also recognise that we have to help people live their lives and rear their families during that conflict. It is important that we continue to do so.

I also believe we should recognise that this is a key issue. We have made a number of investments in that area to improve people's lives. For example, we have being working on a major solar power-generated treatment system in Gaza in the past two to three years to provide emergency sewerage treatment to improve the daily quality of life and health of the people who live there. People are living there every day and it is important that while we have a political debate and a security debate, we also remember that people are living their lives and we need to assist them with that in terms of improving the quality of water, health and education for the people who live there and will continue to live there because that is their home.

The debate has been very useful. We had a debate in the other House yesterday on this issue. The main issue people feel very strongly about is that Ireland completely supports international law and Israel has been found guilty of breaches of international law time and again. We are not the sole international policeperson that can implement sanctions against the people who have broken international law but we must be consistent in saying international law, to which we have all signed up, must be respected. That is an issue on which we are very firm.

The two-state solution has been in the Irish psyche for a long number of years, going back to the late Brian Lenihan senior, who was the first European politician of note to propose that. This idea gained widespread support in so many areas notwithstanding the fact that some people here today still questioned it. I am not saying every party did but some people did and it is important that we recognise that.

It is important to be of assistance to the international community and continue this help. As the Tánaiste also noted in his remarks, it is vital the international community continues to encourage the holding of free, fair and competitive elections. It is worth noting that we have not had these there. When we speak about that, I would like people here to encourage free, fair and democratic elections in the region we are talking about.

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