Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I think the Deputy's presentation, frankly, is politically dishonest. He says the world and the global south are watching and accusing us of double standards. They do not accuse Ireland of double standards at all. I have met representatives of all the Arab states in the region and I have met those from African states. Whenever it comes to talking about the Middle East, they make an exception for Ireland's position and that of a number of other member states. It is not fair to say what the Deputy said. Those countries may accuse others within Europe of double standards. They do not accuse Ireland of double standards.

The most negative rhetoric about Ireland and Palestine is in this House or is whipped up on social media. I saw a lot of it last week following my visit to the Middle East, when much of it was fake news and disinformation, which the Deputy's party piled onto. I looked, for interest's sake, at who was doing all the trolling and so on. It is a very dishonest campaign by his party. It seems its main interest in this is how its members can gain an electoral advantage out of the horrific situation that is the Middle East right now. I think its proposals to end diplomatic relations were incoherent and irresponsible. They made no sense in the context of trying to get Irish citizens out of Gaza, getting hostages released or getting a resolution to this. We have to maintain diplomatic channels and diplomatic relations. I have seen very little credible positioning from the Deputy's party.

Ireland does stand on its own two feet on this issue. We have consistently condemned breaches of UN resolutions and humanitarian law by Israel. We have made a robust submission to the International Criminal Court regarding the resolution passed at the UN with respect to Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The Deputy ignores all that as if it never happened. We voted for the Arab resolution and were one of eight EU member states to do so, where the EU did not have a unified position on that Arab resolution at the UN at the commencement of this war. The Deputy ignores all that and reduces the whole argument to sound bites and sloganeering with a view to smearing people on this side of the House and accusing them of this, that and the other, which is a very unfair presentation of the issue. We do not just do whatever the EU is doing. I know the Deputy's party has a strong anti-European Union position, so any chance it gets to attack the European Union, it does that. I have made the point that the EU has quadrupled humanitarian aid to the Palestinians to €100 million.

I did not and do not support the initiative and actions taken by Commissioner Várhelyi in respect of endeavouring to review aid to the Palestinians, and we spoke up strongly about that. As a result of us and others speaking up, we got a very different result on that front. I do not have an issue with opposing antisemitic behaviour or the allocation of funding to prevent antisemitic behaviour. I do not approve of using development assistance in that regard, but I have no issues with any initiatives the EU will take to reduce antisemitic behaviour and promote tolerance. That is important and I am sure the Deputy would agree. I take his point about mechanisms that are being used, and we have issues with that too.

We sought further clarity in respect of the use of that, but if it is for initiatives to stop anti-semitism, we have an open mind on it. We are supportive of anti-semitic initiatives.

See this speech in context