Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The terrible events taking place in Gaza continue to dominate the international political agenda. It is clear that we need an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, delivery of much-needed humanitarian aid to Gaza and negotiations to commence on a long-term sustainable two-state solution in the region. We are aware that aid agencies are warning of an imminent famine in the region affecting the entire population of Gaza. It has to be said that this was an inevitable outcome given the actions of Israel since the brutal Hamas attacks last October.

The international community, including the EU and the US, have been too slow to face up to this humanitarian catastrophe. Better late than never but at least something is now being done. As we know, the EU has been found wanting as regards this conflict and in respect of other foreign policy matters.

The EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell continues to be a voice of reason in all of this. He has spoken about how Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war. President Higgins has said something similar. The EU at least has opened up a humanitarian corridor to Gaza from Cyprus. It has also decided to allocate €50 million to UNRWA, although why it initially suspended funding to UNRWA is hard to understand. Thankfully, Canada and Sweden have decided to resume funding of the agency. Humanitarian aid must get into Gaza in volume and at pace by land, sea and air. The US is planning to build a port to ship in vital aid. Jordan, with other countries, is conducting air drops. All of this is not enough. It is clear that Israel is not facilitating the delivery of this aid and that it is not acting in good faith in this regard. The most effective way to get aid in would be via land crossings. Israel must open up these land crossings.

The Taoiseach delivered a strong message on these issues when he was in Washington last week for the St. Patrick's Day celebrations. The change in tone from the US Administration has to be welcomed. President Biden agreed with the Taoiseach's comments on the need for a humanitarian ceasefire but there has been no change in the policy of supplying arms to Israel. We have to hope that Antony Blinken's current visit to the Middle East will yield some positive outcome, as well as the visit next week of Israeli officials to the White House to consider the Israeli intention to conduct a ground assault on Rafah. Of course, this ground assault by Israel troops should not happen. The first casualty of war is the truth and this is certainly true in this case. Nobody can believe what the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israel Defense Forces are saying about these terrible events. They say they are trying to minimise civilian casualties and that they are not stalling food and medicine deliveries. This simply cannot be true and we cannot be expected to believe it.

What about a long-term sustainable deal based on a two-state solution? The international community will have a major role to play in this regard, including the US and Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Qatar. What is clear is that there is no role for Hamas in such a long-term solution given its stated intention to destroy Israel. Similarly, it is very difficult to see any role for the current Israeli Government under Benjamin Netanyahu. The recent remarks by US Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer are very relevant. He severely criticised Netanyahu and called for a general election in Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu is not a democrat as we have seen from his efforts to throw out democratic norms prior to the 7 October attacks. He is deeply unpopular in Israel anyway. Much work needs to be done but the most immediate issue is to get a humanitarian ceasefire in place and get much-needed aid into Gaza. I hope EU leaders at their forthcoming summit can agree on that much at least.

Sadly, the situation in Ukraine is as protracted as ever. The EU has provided approximately €88 billion in financial, humanitarian, emergency, budgetary and military support to Ukraine to date. Ireland has also given bilateral support through stabilisation and humanitarian mechanisms. This is as it should be. In addition, the EU recently decided to provide €5 billion for military aid to Ukraine through an overhauled European Peace facility. I welcome the Taoiseach's comments earlier in the debate that due to our policy of military neutrality the assistance that we will provide will be non-lethal assistance.

Like Deputy Howlin, I was very interested in the Taoiseach's comments on security and defence and how the European Commission has established a European defence industrial strategy and a European defence industry programme. We need to hear more about this in due course and have a discussion about it. What will Ireland's role be on these issues? What about the prospects for a peace deal in Ukraine? President Putin continues to threaten nuclear war while Pope Francis has called for negotiations to commence. There have been reports of various initiatives in this regard from various countries. Such a deal would have to include provisions on territorial claims and NATO membership. It has to be said clearly that any proposed deal would have to be acceptable to Ukraine in the first instance. I would like to think that Ireland can play some role in bringing about a final peace settlement.

The EU has agreed a thirteenth round of sanctions on Russia. The US is also imposing additional sanctions. I wonder whether these sanctions are having the desired effect. The EU sanctions envoy David O'Sullivan is examining the circumvention of sanctions via third countries to try to stop battlefield goods and technology assisting the Russian war effort. I hope he is making some progress in this regard.

I want to mention the EU pact on migration and asylum. Ireland must decide on whether to opt into these measures. What is clear, however, is that we cannot deal with this issue on our own given the globalised and interdependent world in which we live. We should consider opting into this pact for this reason. I await a report from the Minister for Justice on this to outline the pros and cons of whether we should sign up to these measures. Migration is a major issue throughout the EU and it will be shown to be so in the forthcoming European Parliament elections.

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