Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle and all the Members for their time, for their questions and for the statements made earlier by those who contributed.

On the general point about the Middle East, Israel and Gaza, I strongly challenge the contention that the Government is standing idly by and doing nothing on the issue. If one looks at the record of what we have done, one will see that we were the first parliament and government to advocate for a ceasefire. We really called out in strong terms internationally what is happening in Gaza and what people are being subjected to daily. That is being very visibly demonstrated by the atrocities we are seeing. Deputy Higgins was very strong on pointing out what pregnant women and the elderly are going through in an area that is one of the most densely populated areas in the region.

Prior to 7 October, the country has been a party to two opinions it is working on with the ICC. The Attorney General is due to travel next month in connection with one of those opinions as well as the illegal occupation that has been happening. That work has been ongoing by the State. We have seen the Tánaiste travel to the region to have various meetings with actors trying to work on peace and trying to get stable voices who hold sway in the region to win out in terms of penetrating into Israel and working with the various different strands of opinion that exist within Israel. The State has been to the very forefront in doing that. We also saw how our ambassador to Israel was called in due to comments the Taoiseach made, so we have been working very strongly.

With respect to our European obligations, we have come together with a group of European members to try to advocate for a united position within Europe. We are all aware the European Union is a collection of democracies and not a federal entity. On that basis, it can be exceptionally strong when it is united, but at the moment we have a huge challenge, mainly due to the different backgrounds and histories we are trying to weave through using the best diplomatic skill we can to try to achieve a unified position. Ireland has been working to the very forefront in that regard every single day since 7 October. I really want to assure people of that. It can be very disingenuous when we hear it being thrown about that the State is doing nothing. We are all human and we all have compassion. No one has a patent on that. We see what everyone else sees happening in Gaza. We are doing everything we can night and day to stop that. We must be very careful to make our diplomatic presence count and Ireland has been very strong on that. Looking at the two-state solution as European policy, Ireland was the first mover in that area, but we moved when we knew we could win and could draw consensus and that is what we are trying to achieve in this area.

On the specific questions, Deputy Howlin raised the case first of all. We can look at what happened with Ukraine. In March the preliminary assessment happened. Ireland took its time - six months at that particular juncture - until September when it decided to intervene. Like with this case I do not know the exact timeframe, but it is a very specific legal argument on genocide. We have not seen any papers yet and have not been party to what case South Africa has put forward, but we will make that decision as quickly as we can once we assess and see the papers the cases put forward. We are working very strongly outside of that. We are robustly working with our counterparts to try to move the dial. We have seen two UN votes where all our diplomatic staff at the UN have been working hard. With those two votes, we could see the centre of gravity moved. That was brought forward to the last European Council meeting, so that work continues at pace.

I have mentioned the two-state solution. We have been advocating that dialogue open up with the Palestinian Authority and continue at pace with the hope we will get statehood. It is very important that Europe is counted in terms of having an association agreement with the Palestinian Authority.

Work needs to progress at that level and obviously, that is so important.

On the multi-annual financial framework and the €50 billion budget, we were at around the 12th negotiating box when we left before Christmas. Obviously, the stumbling block was Hungary. According to my contacts in Brussels, however, there is optimism about progress being made. The last thing Ireland and other European member states want to do is proceed on an intergovernmental basis, whereby administrations would have to reach agreements on their own, particularly with regard to the Ukrainian support package. That said, I believe that the tolerance level in Brussels vis-à-vis Mr. Orban is falling sharply. I have seen that with some of my EU colleagues with whom I have had a number of meetings since Christmas. Hopefully, that will make a difference when we go forward to the European Council meeting.

Deputy Ó Murchú raised the issue of Gaza. I outlined the work the Government is doing. Deputy Mattie McGrath raised the issue of our asylum seeker obligations, which are obligations under the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We are part of the United Nations and that is where our obligations come from in the first instance. It is very important that we live up to those obligations. On Georgia, I have spoken with the Georgian ambassador on a number of occasions in relation to the presentation of individuals from a safe country. Georgia has made huge efforts in this regard and has brought police attachés over to Ireland to work with people coming off the plane and to ensure that the numbers would reduce. The numbers did actually reduce drastically but they have crept up again. We are continuing to do work on that because it is very important that the most vulnerable people coming into our country, those who really need protection, get it. That is what the system is trying to do, as well as to shorten the amount of time we take in processing applications, which will be critical into the future, as will the recently agreed EU asylum and migration pact.

It is also very important to be careful in our use of the term ideology. This is a very complex issue. During the Brexit campaign, voters were told that if they voted for Brexit the number of people coming to the UK to seek asylum would reduce. We all saw the posters that Nigel Farage and other actors put up. What happened? The numbers of people seeking asylum in the UK have increased drastically in the interim. When Italy took a sharp turn to the right we heard that migration was going to be tackled head on and solved but we saw what happened in Lampedusa and the huge migration issues there. This is a very complex problem. People may think that sharp slogans, a change of government or a dynamic shift to the right or the left will address this but governments of all colours, right across the globe, are finding it very difficult to respond to the migration issue. People are being weaponised and the most vulnerable are being targeted. We can see that on the eastern borders of Europe, involving Belarus and Russia. They are using vulnerable people as a weapon and that places huge pressure on society. This is why we have to work to tackle the origins of the issue, the problems in various countries that mean people are bearing the brunt of shockingly horrific conditions. The Government must continue to work on this.

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