Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The prospect of a temporary end to Israel’s brutal bombardment of Gaza and the expected and hoped-for release by Hamas of women and children hostages including, we hope, Emily Hand, offers a glimmer of hope in what are very dark days. However, we all appreciate that work must continue and diplomatic efforts internationally must intensify until a permanent ceasefire can be agreed. We have heard from the Israeli Government that it has two stated aims, namely, the release of all hostages and the elimination of Hamas.

While hope remains that a pause will last until we see hostages released, we know that tragically Netanyahu’s approach to that second stated goal has involved the merciless killing of so many children, women, men, doctors, UN staff, journalists and others. We must not be naive about the enormous challenge of protecting what remains of Gaza and preventing what looks hideously increasingly likely to be the genocide of its civilians.

For our part, I think we can all agree that Ireland has the benefit of our diplomatic reputation and the respect of countries internationally. That position morally obliges us to act to challenge in the strongest possible terms the horror that has been unleashed by the Israeli Government and to seek to end the bombardment of the people of Gaza. We have heard workers from the United Nations and Médecins Sans Frontières saying that this is the worst situation they have witnessed in their careers. Gaza is now the most dangerous place in the world for a child and the average age of a person killed in the conflict is just five years old. It is heart-breaking to think of those five-year-olds.

We need to act. We need to deploy tactics, such as those that were used against South Africa during apartheid, to put an end to the brutality of the Israeli regime. We need to act to impose strong sanctions on Israel and end trade with the occupied territories. While we may be militarily neutral, we are not politically neutral in the face of the brutal bombardment of Gaza. We have yet to use all the diplomatic tools that are available to us in the Gaza context. That makes even more frustrating yesterday’s surprise announcement by the Tánaiste about the triple lock, which does have a link with our neutrality. We cannot separate the two.

Despite the Tánaiste’s denials when the Consultative Forum on International Security Policy was formed, it is clear that his announcement in the wake of that represents a creeping drift in the Government away from our longstanding policy of military neutrality. In the Dáil, the Tánaiste effectively asserted last night, and indeed again today, that the triple lock leaves us at the whim of five countries and in particular at the whim of Russia on the UN Security Council.

I share the Tánaiste’s views on Russia. I absolutely share them. I have no time for the Russian regime. Yet, it is the answer to the wrong question to say that we should move away from the triple lock because there is a problem with Russia’s veto on the UN Security Council. The question we should be asking is the question of reform of the Security Council to remove that veto and move away from the power the UN Security Council has. The reality is that our triple lock in the Defence Act provides that we may participate in international peace-keeping forces that are mandated by the UN General Assembly, as well as the UN Security Council. We need to see the power of the UN General Assembly being asserted and brought to the fore in the United Nations.

If I may, I think the Tánaiste is putting the cart before the horse in seeking to change a longstanding policy that is represented and protected by the triple lock. We are asking him to abandon plans to end the triple lock and instead to enshrine Ireland’s neutrality in the Constitution.

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