Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is a very serious matter. Even if it is a small number of staff in a very big agency, it is shocking to think that UN staff could be involved in any form of terrorist attack. It does need to be investigated thoroughly. We have taken the decision, however, not to suspend our funding to the agency. The people of Palestine need humanitarian aid, healthcare, and education and it would be a disproportionate response to suspend our funding. For that reason, we are among a number of countries, perhaps even one of the first countries, to say that we will continue to fund the agency. We are providing €36 million this year to help Palestinians, of which €18 million goes to UNRWA. We have confidence in Philippe Lazzarini to immediately terminate the contracts of the small number of employees suspected of involvement in terrorism.

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