Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to speak about the ongoing genocide in Palestine. The headline in the minutes of the European Council meeting read: "The European Council has been following the situation in the Middle East very closely since Hamas' terrorist attacks against Israel of 7 October 2023." For a layman reading this headline, you would think that Israel carried out no atrocities prior to 7 October. Palestine has been subjected to an apartheid regime by Israel for decades. Palestinians have seen their children gunned down, their lands robbed and they have been treated as second-class citizen by an oppressive occupying force. Since 7 October, what we have witnessed is genocide - a campaign to wipe out the Palestinian people from the face of this earth. Were there any discussions at the European Council meeting about sanctions against Israel? Why does Israel commit war crimes? It commits war crimes because it can. There is no retribution. It has no fear of retribution. The world needs to impose sanctions on Israel but this Government has shamefully taken the occupied territories Bill off the agenda despite misleading the public during the general election that it would be a priority. People want action. People want sanctions. The State needs to be brave and lead the way. If the Government had listened to the public then this Bill would have been progressed years ago. We have seen how Palestinian victims are described using passive language. Only last week, on RTÉ, we saw how four family members of a Palestinian doctor who was based in Ireland were said to have died in Gaza after their house collapsed on top of them. This is what RTÉ reported. It was reported they died after the house collapsed. The reality is that an Israeli airstrike killed them. The roof did not collapse; the roof was bombed. They did not simply die; they were murdered. They were innocent civilians. Since Israel ended the ceasefire there has been 792 Palestinians murdered in the last number of weeks. When are we going to say enough is enough?

The Taoiseach has recently announced that the EU will be breaking its spending limit for militarisation efforts. There is always enough money for war but never enough money for service for people. Before the last elections the Government announced a fund of €8 million for children with disabilities. Pearse Doherty revealed last week that the HSE had still not received approval nor funding for this grant, leaving many of my constituency stranded. In my constituency of Dublin Mid-West, waiting times for speech and language therapies, occupational therapies and all other therapies are years long. We have children waiting up to four years for an appointment. Children are not being allowed the dignity to reach their developmental milestones. The Government has been embarrassed this week into moving on this and the funding has finally been approved.

It also has to be pointed out that the person who launched this funding, former Minister, Senator Anne Rabbitte, failed to be re-elected in the last general election, failed to be elected to the Seanad and was subsequently appointed by the Taoiseach to the Seanad. It seems failure is rewarded by this current Government.

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