Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is in the programme for Government and we have said very clearly that we will implement it. The Tánaiste will meet with Senator Black in the coming days. Senator Black is the Member of the Seanad who brought forward this Bill. She is very clear that we need to get this right and that this is not straightforward. The Deputy is right: it is because of the ruling of the ICJ that the situation, the dynamic, we are working in has changed and that we are now able to bring forward this legislation but we need to get it right. We need to make sure that there are not unintended consequences and that the objective of the Bill is to help to bring about a lasting peace and solution. That must continue to be our focus and our priority.

As referred to earlier in the week, with the hatred that has now been instilled in so many people, it is difficult to see a solution or a way forward, but we must keep that focus. We must keep that ambition and that priority. In Luxembourg on Monday when this is discussed at the meeting of the European Foreign Affairs Council, that is exactly what the Tánaiste will be doing. That is exactly why he travelled to the Middle East recently, not just to engage with our soldiers who are there on peacekeeping missions, but to make it clear that our objective is to work with every single person here to try to bring about a peaceful solution and to end the suffering of millions of people.

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