Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach said he would get legal advice on the EU-Israel trade agreement three weeks ago. Where is the urgency when a child is dying every ten minutes in Gaza? People there cannot wait any longer. Whole families, generations of people, have been wiped off the face of the earth. People do not have enough food or water, they have nowhere to flee the bombs, most of the hospitals are not functional any more, and we are watching this happen without doing anything meaningful to try to stop it. Absolutely zero pressure is being applied to Israel. Netanyahu has been clear that the killing will continue until they say Hamas has been destroyed, but how will they measure that? We know their intelligence is not reliable and we know they engage in lies and misinformation to cover up their human rights abuses.

Israel has to face consequences. Ireland must advocate for that at an EU level. I recognise that going out on a limb and introducing EU sanctions is not something the Taoiseach can do. I am asking him to push for that at an EU level, at the next meeting, on Thursday, to try to get that unilateral response like we did with the war in Ukraine, to encourage the rest of the community in Europe to take those strong actions. I understand the Taoiseach's position and I agree with it, but the position of having only words of condemnation is what I cannot understand. We can do more to try to save lives and the Government is not doing it. We need actions to match those words. Where is the urgency?

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