Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

If it will provide any consolation to the Tánaiste, I will of course acknowledge that Europe has huge expenditure of humanitarian aid. Some states within the EU are much better than others and there is not a universal approach but I also acknowledge that the EU has funded very important projects in Palestine. It has funded schools, hospitals, healthcare centres, youth clubs and women's centres. In all instances it has watched as Israel has gone in and destroyed those very buildings which Europe has paid for. Europe shrugged and did not look for even a cent back from the Israeli regime. It is all right on the one hand if we say that we are actually providing humanitarian aid to a region such as Palestine, but if that humanitarian aid is being negated and completely countered by the actions of a state and that state bears no consequences for that, then I would argue the logic of that position.

If there was a single Commissioner who in any way equivocated on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, never mind giving carte blanche to Vladimir Putin to continue, the Tánaiste would have no difficulty in standing up in this Dáil and saying that person was inappropriate for this job, and he would be right. In this instance, Ursula von der Leyen did huge damage, particularly across the global south, to European efforts to secure international support to pressure Vladimir Putin to stop his illegal invasion of Ukraine. That one issue alone should be enough for us to have the courage and conviction to say that somebody who has undermined the European institutions, and certainly spoke without any authority on our behalf in a way which undermined our efforts at securing peace in the Middle East, should not be considered.

The problem is that what the Tánaiste is saying today is that as Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Green Party MEP candidates go around, no only knows for sure when it comes down to it in July whether they may actually put their lámha suas in support of that person for the position. That is not the way in which to conduct these elections. Every single Irish political party should say categorically that we will not support Ursula von der Leyen for Commission President because she has undermined everything we have set out to achieve in the Middle East peace process.

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