Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have got recent legal advice.

I am happy to share with the Deputy the date of the most recent legal advice. I do not have it to hand. We have engaged on this in good faith.

I believe that, at a European level, we had a significant breakthrough at the last European Council meeting in April - the first one I was honoured to attend - where the unanimous conclusion was a call for an immediate ceasefire. That had not been the unanimous position. The Minister of State, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, and I were in Brussels for that. The conclusion includes the view of the President of the European Commission, President von der Leyen. We want to see an immediate ceasefire, an immediate cessation of violence. We want to see an immediate release of all the hostages. We want to see unimpeded access to humanitarian aid. However, at this point, I think that we in Europe and other parts of the world have to ask ourselves a question: if we want to see all of these things, what must we do to create the environment to bring them about and what levers are at our disposal? That is why I continue to pursue, on behalf of this country, the need for a review of the association agreement on the basis of its human rights clauses. Trade agreements are decided at a European level, and I believe that review is the most appropriate way to take the matter forward.

Critics of our country will seek to misrepresent all of our views on this. It is important to say on the floor of this House that we deplore Hamas, that we see it as a terrorist organisation, and that we can differentiate between a terrorist organisation and the people of a country. This country can do that better than most because we know what it is like to live in a country where a terrorist organisation tries to hijack our national identity.

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