Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Last week, all Members of the Oireachtas were invited to stand outside the Dáil and read names from a list of people who have been murdered in Gaza since this conflict began. I did not realise the weight of the task until I started reading those names. There was name after name on page after page. The list just seemed to go on forever. The most difficult part was reading out the names and the ages of children.

They were babies, toddlers and teenagers whose only concerns should have been things like going to school, playing with their friends and getting up to mischief. Instead, because they had been murdered indiscriminately, a stranger on the other side of the world was standing reading their names out.

This war has been described as a war on children. UNICEF has said it is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child, and I do not think anyone can doubt that. Some of the Government's own Ministers have said similar. Some 25,460 people have now been killed in the conflict in Gaza, 70% of whom are women and children. That is 117 children - 117 children - a day. Over ten children a day have one or both limbs amputated, often without anaesthetic. Since the conflict began, 20,000 babies have been born, and that is 144 babies every day. A UNICEF official has said that those babies are being born into hell. Oftentimes, they are born to mothers who undergo a Caesarean without anaesthetic, and oftentimes they are being cut out of their mothers, as their mother is dead. Some 135,000 children under the age of two are at risk of severe malnutrition and 71,000 cases of diarrhea, which is one of the most serious killers of children, have been recorded in children under the age of five. That is a 4,000% increase since the war began.

There can be no doubt as to the urgency of this situation, and that is why I find the Government's "wait and see" approach to be particularly abhorrent. Every single day that the Government waits before it actually provides a tangible action means more children will die, will be maimed and will go missing. I sat and watched the debate yesterday in the Dáil. What I saw was the Government cowering behind semantics and procedure. Today, we see the Tánaiste cowering behind the agriculture Minister, and we see the Government cowering behind nice words. They are strong words because that is what surprised me most. Every single TD that stood up yesterday condemned and said how absolutely horrific what was happening in Gaza was, and yet, the Government will not take action. That is a complete shame on it, and I think most Government TDs recognise that as well. Those nice words and strong words will mean nothing to the next child who has to have their leg amputated without anaesthetic.

If there is any country in this world that should be standing beside South Africa in this case, standing for what is right and just, and standing to protect those children, it is Ireland. As Deputy Cairns pointed out, all we are asking in our motion is that the Government does that at the earliest available opportunity. If the Government and its TDs cannot do that simple thing on behalf of this country, all I have to say is, what hope does Gaza have?

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