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

We have been very clear. This is a legal intervention and needs to be done properly and with credibility as we have done all along. Ireland has been one of the few countries within the European Union that is utilising the international courts properly, effectively with due analysis, looking at these things rigorously. Six weeks ago, in the debate on that motion, I said that we would consider intervening, but we first of all had to see preliminary findings in the South African case. This is exactly what happened with Ukraine v. Russia; it was four to five months after the preliminary hearings. So far South Africa has engaged in the preliminary hearings. The court ruled, made conclusions and provisional conclusions on which we all agreed regarding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and unhindered access to aid. That is the preliminary stage, but South Africa has to file the substantive case. It makes sense. I have to stress I have been advised of legal grounds on this and I have no issue with that. We need to look at this through the legal prism if we want to be effective. We could write a press release. Either we want to be effective from a legal perspective or not. I think we need to examine this given the very high threshold within the genocide convention that is there already.

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