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

I have run out of words to describe the horror being inflicted in Gaza by Israel. I have run out of words to describe how cruel it is. Israel's stated aim is the elimination of Hamas, but its relentless and indiscriminate attacks do not discern between innocent people and Hamas fighters. More than 18,000 people have now been slaughtered, 75% of them women and children. I want to read into the record a recent report from journalist Bel Trew on the scenes inside the European hospital in Khan Younis:

A badly burned toddler screaming for the mother he doesn’t know is dead – and screaming because doctors do not have enough painkillers to relieve his suffering. An eight-year-old boy whose brain is exposed as bombing damaged parts of his skull. A teenage girl, her eye surgically removed, because every bone in her face is smashed. A three-year-old double amputee, whose severed limbs are laid out in a pink box beside him.

None of us can say we did not know what was happening. I do not know how the leaders of self-professed civilised countries who have abstained or voted against a ceasefire in the UN can live with their decisions. They have the blood of thousands of innocent people on their hands. Four weeks ago, when I asked the Taoiseach to push for trade sanctions against Israel at EU level, he told me then that he would seek legal advice. Every week since then he has said he did not have that advice yet. This is despite the fact that most people would not think he needs a legal expert to tell him what is very obvious to everyone, namely, that Israel is in breach of the human rights clause. I was interested to hear that on Monday at the EU Foreign Affairs Council, the Tánaiste asked the EU Commission to examine if Israel was in breach of the human rights clause of the EU-Israel trade agreement. Am I to assume that the lawyers have at last provided the Taoiseach with the advice?

The letter to the EU Council President, co-signed by the prime ministers of Belgium, Malta and Spain calls for the EU to act and states that its credibility is now at stake. I am genuinely glad to see the Government take that stance. However, I regret to say that the credibility of the EU on this is long gone, as is its moral authority. Will the Taoiseach clarify if he has received the legal advice he promised to get four weeks ago? Is it now the position of the Irish Government that multilateral trade sanctions at EU level should be imposed on Israel?

See this speech in context