Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I was a foreign Minister once but I am not one at the moment. I am an enterprise Minister now. Many of the issues the Deputy has raised are foreign policy issues on which I have very strong views. However, we are dealing with questions on enterprise.

The Deputy’s comments are very one-sided in many ways. As he knows, I have been a very strong voice at a European level in relation to the rights of the Palestinian people to have a state of their own and on a two-state solution, a peace process and holding Israel to account for breaches of international law. I continue to hold all those views.

I speak in the context of the human tragedy we have seen unfold both for Israelis and Palestinians in the last number of weeks. Our focus should be on the progress we have seen over the last 48 hours in moving towards a four-day ceasefire. We should be focused on trying to make that ceasefire work, last and be extended. Ireland is doing everything we can through our voice within the European Union the United Nations and making our voice heard bilaterally, both with Palestine and Israel, to try to bring about an end to what is extraordinary human suffering. Irish people want Ireland to be vocal and active in trying to bring that to an end and the Government is using every tool we have to do so.

We need to acknowledge the suffering Israelis have endured as well as the extraordinary response to that suffering in the context of what is currently happening in Gaza. We need to call out breaches of international law, as we do. Most important, we need to bring about change through robust and good diplomacy, as we saw from the Tánaiste last week when he visited the region. We have also had that from the Taoiseach in his very clear statements in this House.

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