Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

People are being obliterated in Gaza as we speak. The Tánaiste has every excuse for inaction. He says he is deeply committed to international law and accountability, but where are the sanctions against Israel that we desperately need now? Why is Irish airspace being used now to facilitate weapons being transported to Israel to kill children? It is fine to say there are policies and regulation in place on dual-use technology but the facts are that dual-use technology from Ireland, made in Ireland and designed in Ireland is being used in munitions and weapons that are killing children, men and women in Gaza. That is what is happening now and it has been happening for the last 12 months.

As the Tánaiste says we will be doing this and doing that, the slaughter continues. We are asking for the Government to act now. The impact is the slaughter of children in Gaza - children who are being killed every day and should have their lives ahead of them with hopes and dreams for the future - children blown to pieces by weapons that have passed through Irish airspace, brutal carpet bombing of residential areas with weapons that have passed through Irish airspace, media workers killed by weapons that passed through Irish airspace, healthcare workers killed and humanitarian relief workers killed. An estimated 10,000 Palestinians are under rubble whose bodies have not even made the official count of the dead in Gaza. Every day in Gaza children are seeing their parents murdered in front of their eyes.

This is genocide, with bakeries destroyed, heritage and cultural spaces destroyed, hospitals destroyed, schools destroyed, universities destroyed, mosques and places of worship destroyed, museums destroyed, public buildings destroyed, housing destroyed, infrastructure destroyed and refugee camps destroyed. An entire way of life is being destroyed and some of that is with weapons that have passed through our airspace.

Genocide is taking place in an attempt to eradicate the Palestinian people and there is complicity from Ireland. The Government has not stopped the use of Irish airspace for the transport of weapons. We have not inspected a single plane. Indeed, the Government denied that our Irish airspace was being used until work done by The Ditch showed that was the case. That is complicity in the slaughter and genocide. The dual-use technology, made and designed in Ireland and exported to Israel and used in weapons that slaughter people, is complicity in the slaughter and complicity in the genocide. Ireland has failed to take any economic actions against Israel despite the continuing slaughter of men, women and children. That failure by the Government to act is complicity in the slaughter and complicity in the genocide.

There has been support from the Government to pass the occupied territories Bill. Even though we offered time this week and Sinn Féin offered time, that is not happening. That failure to act is further complicity. The illegal settlements Bill has not been progressed and has been blocked by this Government; that is a failure to act. When we see children in Gaza being orphaned and screaming for the parents they have lost, parents who may have been killed with munitions that went through our airspace, that is complicity in the genocide.

There is overwhelming support from the Irish people for the people of Palestine, the people of Gaza. There is no question of that. The Government has been outspoken when it comes to the rule of law internationally and domestically. However, while the Government has been vocal on this blatant disregard of international law, there has been a complete lack of the sanctions that are absolutely needed on this. Even though the Tánaiste says that it will and should happen at European level, 12 months into this there is no sign of sanctions coming from a European level. Genocide is taking place, as this motion recognises and I welcome that the Government is not opposing it. Where are the sanctions that are needed now? We need the Government to act on this.

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