Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I, too, believe that the situation underscores the urgent need for peace, not war. We would much rather see the Irish Government step up its effort to bring about a peaceful ceasefire. The pursuit of peace and justice should always be our guiding principles, regardless of the complexities of international law and optics.

I condemn utterly the actions of Hamas on that fateful day in October. I unreservedly condemn the massive overreaction of Israel. It will not even listen to its allies in the United States. Now we have game-playing, with motions being brought forward and the South African situation. Goodness knows, they know enough about trouble and apartheid and everything else. Sense has to prevail here. The destruction, torture, killing and slaughter of women, children, whole families and communities has to stop. What I cannot understand at all is the barbaric nature of the movement of people into an area - and it is a tiny bit of land anyway - and the bombardment of it after that. I do not know how you could not call it genocide.

We are being inundated with emails. You would think we are all powerful and we can do a lot, but Ireland has always been a neutral country. We must maintain our neutrality and must work, as we have respect all over the world for punching above our weight, in trying to bring about a ceasefire. The EU must also do more. Indeed, what sickens and saddens me is the amount of armoury and armaments and the whole industry around that. Apparently, these people want a war every ten or 15 years to ensure they can offload their supplies and create new lethal weapons. We must do our best to stop this savage, barbaric war.

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