Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

No problem. I appreciate that.

The recognition that Israel has breached international law has not been as explicit as I believe it should be, but I think there was an implicit recognition in the Tánaiste's remarks that Israel has, indeed, breached international law and continues to do so. I would argue strongly that it was in breach of international law long before the events of 7 October, given it has been engaged in a campaign of annexation, occupation and whole-scale discrimination against the Palestinian people that I would describe as apartheid, based on the report of Amnesty International and others.

The question arises as to what we should do about it. The Tánaiste says we should do whatever it is that the EU is willing to do. I read in The Irish Timesthat the EU is agreeing to give the highest level ever of development aid to Israel this year. This is a state that, as we speak, is planning to return to the whole-scale bombardment of civilians and civilian infrastructure in a military operation that has resulted in the deaths of more than 5,000 children. That is not acceptable. We need to do more. Of course, we have to try to get the EU and other multilateral institutions to do more, but we also need to stand on our own two feet and Ireland needs to take action. It was quite pathetic that the Irish ambassador to Israel was hauled before its foreign ministry to receive a dressing-down over a tweet. In essence, this means Israel has taken a harder diplomatic stance against Ireland for a social media post than Ireland has taken against Israel for the whole-scale bombardment of a civilian population that has resulted in the mass carnage we have seen in Gaza. I do not think that is acceptable.

There are measures that can be taken. We see in every Department - I tabled a parliamentary question on this to the Department of enterprise - that the approvals given for interactions in respect of the dual use of military equipment from Ireland to Israel have increased sixfold this year. Rather than Ireland taking action against Israel, therefore, Israel is acting with impunity because nobody is willing to take any actions whatsoever. My appeal to the Tánaiste is for Ireland to take action. He has rejected virtually everything that has come before the Dáil in the form of propositions to take action. What will he do, in real terms, to respond to the carnage in Gaza?

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