Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. As I said, I appreciate his work on this. At the same time, we are a party to this trade agreement. We signed it and voted for it in the European Parliament, and the Government ratified it. Therefore, the Government has a responsibility to do whatever it can. I know this issue was raised by the Government in February. As I said, I raised it with the then Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, in November. At that point he spoke about agreements between the EU and state of Israel not applying to the territories occupied by Israel in 1967. I pointed out that, of course, there are international as well as national agreements. It is not all about whether something is inside Israel's territory; it is about what is happening outside.

Europe Day is marked today. Regarding trust in the European project, we must mean what we say. This is an example of where we can show that we mean what we say. I thank the Minister for his work on this matter and ask him to do the very best he can to get the agreement reviewed because it would send a strong signal from the European Union. I believe the agreement needs to be suspended. We cannot wait any longer to show that Europe does mean what it says.

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