Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I absolutely agree with the Deputy, in the sense that Ireland is heavily engaged on the ground, both through our troops in Lebanon and our representative office in Ramallah. We have an embassy in Tel Aviv. We have embassies in Egypt and Jordan. We have people on the ground who engage. There are two ways to approach this. You can go off and be isolationist and attack everybody. That is fine. It is legitimate to do that but not engage. Successive Irish governments have always historically chosen to engage, to try to change minds and opinions. It is interesting that the dial is turning in the European Union on this space from where we were in the beginning. We were one of the first countries to call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. That is now the majority opinion of European Union member states. It is a small minority which does not want an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. There are positives, but it is not as politically advantageous in the short term. I sense that the debate in Ireland is sometimes about trying to debate who is better than the other person. Looking in externally there is no question internationally of how people perceive Ireland in terms of the Middle East. Ireland is perceived to be pro-Palestinian in the sense that we want a Palestinian state, and also in how we really work hard for the adherence to international humanitarian law.

See this speech in context