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

I am asking that he signal his intention and start the preparatory work to intervene now because we all know that you do not signal your intent and walk into the ICJ tomorrow. There is a lot of work that goes on in advance of that. When bombs are being dropped indiscriminately in densely populated areas, a man-made famine and aid cannot get in and when 250 people are being killed every day there is no time to waste. This wait-and-see approach is not proportionate to the atrocity that is unfolding in front of our eyes. It is not reflective of the strong feeling around the country and it is not even representative of the Tánaiste’s own words on this issue.

I have welcomed this Government’s and the Tánaiste’s strong words of condemnation against Israel’s massacre but what everyone wants to know is will he match those words with actions, not at some undefined time in the future but now.

I have three questions. Does the Tánaiste believe that a genocide, or risk of genocide, is occurring in Gaza? Can he explain his divergent approach to Russian and Israeli war crimes? How is this Government going to hold Israel to account?

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