Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I want to challenge the Taoiseach on a point he raised earlier when he said that my approach had not assisted the people of Gaza and had zero effect. By implication he is talking about the approach of socialists. By implication he is talking about the global protest movement of which we are part. His statement is not correct, in my view. Why did the man with whom he was spending time on Sunday at the White House, Joe Biden, change his position to the point where he now opposes a ground assault in Rafah? It is because of the pressure he feels from below, namely, the huge protests in US cities, the big number of votes he has lost in the Democratic primaries and the big number of votes he is fearful of losing in the general election.

The protest movement in the United States certainly would have been boosted had the Taoiseach boycotted the events last week. However, even if he had not, and had made a criticism of Biden and the US, as Sally Rooney says, not just of the bombers but those supplying the bombs, the protest movement would have been boosted as well. It is a pity that he failed to do so.

On the point he challenged me on, I do not think he has right on his side there.

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