Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)

I thank the Tánaiste for providing a little more clarity. I appreciate it is an evolving situation. There is, however, a very specific question here about the particular flight I raised with the Tánaiste. We have seen that court order from the US. I appreciate that the Tánaiste will keep opposition parties updated as the situation evolves. We certainly require much greater clarity on the broader picture of US airplanes refuelling at Shannon Airport where they are en route to drop bombs or to provide bombs to Israel to drop in Gaza.

That is where we need clarity, which has been sadly lacking from the Government. We need that.

I also welcome the Tánaiste's positive comments this morning on the radio about our proposal, led by my colleague, Deputy Duncan Smith, that we will be bringing before the Dáil next week, calling on the Government to bring a resolution to the UN General Assembly to try to move things on, to ensure Israel can no longer act with impunity, to ensure the international community can seek to address the situation and to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches the desperate, starving people of Gaza. I welcome the Tánaiste's positive comments, which, by the way, were rather different from the Taoiseach's comments in this House yesterday, where he fell very far short of even agreeing to consider the proposal that the Labour Party is bringing forward. We are looking for support on a cross-party basis for this. We believe that the genocide in Gaza is an issue of such enormity that we have to ensure that we speak with one voice on this and that Ireland is leading on an international stage to ensure an end to the suffering of the people of Gaza.

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