Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Last year's consultative forum was a very important forum. What was striking were the attempts of the Deputies opposite to stop it from ever happening. That fundamentally undermined democracy itself. There is already strong intolerance of democracy from the Deputies opposite. It is their way or the highway.

Ireland's position on the Middle East over the past three decades and more has been principled, informed by the desire to get peace, and supportive of the humanitarian needs of Palestinians. We have raised the issue all over the world, including in the US, unlike Sinn Féin, which did not raise it at all with their colleagues in the United States. It has never, through the very large forums Sinn Féin has in the United States, really raised the Palestinian question as loudly as it raises it here.

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