Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this subject. I have listened to the debate since it commenced and it is horrific that in 2024, we are talking about between 8,000 and 10,000 children being killed and over 20,000 people in total being killed in Palestine. What is it all about? We can talk about how it started with the attack on Israel. The consequence is that men, women and, above all, children have been killed. We do not know the extent to which many people have been maimed, physically and mentally, as a result of what has happened.

War is now about cutting off supplies so that people cannot have heat, water and sewerage. You starve them one way if you cannot kill them another way. When we see pictures on the television of children in hospitals that were attacked and bombed, we ask in whose name this is being done.

I listened to the Tánaiste speak earlier and I read his speech carefully. The ICJ is complex. It is about wording and finding fault. It has already stated there is a plausible risk of genocide. That is a step but while it has said that, what does it mean to the people in Gaza who are being attacked tonight and who will be attacked tomorrow and the next day?

I am, in a way, lost for words other than to say that at this stage, all right-minded people must come together to make every effort to sit down with Israel and the parties out there to create a humanitarian ceasefire initially and then to try to find a peace plan. We have got to stop the bombing, all the rhetoric about war and killing, and all that goes with it.

I thought it was terrible when the Russians attacked Ukraine. That is still going on but is not in the news as much because of the war in Israel. It is not a "war", in fact. The killing and murdering that is going on there has taken over the news feeds. It is actually something that has brought the world order, and what we are doing, into focus.

I do not believe that keeping away from Washington on St. Patrick's Day is going to do one iota. If we are there, we can try to convince the powers that be to take a different road. We have to keep talking to people across the world. We have had our own troubles in Ireland and found a peaceful solution to them, which to date has worked and has probably saved thousands of lives. With the international reputation we have, it is important that we use every ounce of our influence to try to bring this murderous and barbarous action to a close, once and for all. The scars will be there for years and it is something with which many people will have to live. It has gone way too far and we need to apply more and more international pressure, however we do it, to bring Israel to its senses and to stop the bloodshed that is happening.

We talk about how to find solutions. The first thing to do, as the Tánaiste mentioned, is to get a humanitarian ceasefire. The second thing we need to look at is a peace plan. The world, including Europe, America and everywhere else, needs to come together to deal with all of that and to ensure it is done as a matter of urgency.

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