Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

This Bill gives us the power to put a block on war bonds being sold through the Irish Central Bank across the European Union, the power to finally sanction Israel. If the Government's words mean anything, it will support this Bill because words mean nothing if the Government refuses to act.

There are hard decisions and easy decisions. I listened to a doctor describe responding to a mass casualty event. He only had two shots of painkillers. He had to decide who would get them and who would not. He outlined the harrowing thought process. He narrowed it down to children. Children would get them. He then made the unimaginable decision to keep the painkillers for children, not with the worst injuries, but the two children with the worst injuries who he thought had a hope of living. He spoke of leaving other children close by in pain, in agony, to die. Those are the decisions he said he had to make every day in Gaza. It is gut-wrenching even to imagine it.

The bombs raining down that tore those defenceless children apart had to be paid for and, in the past year and a half, Israel raised an estimated €4.5 billion by selling war bonds in Europe. That was only possible because the Irish Central Bank gave it permission to do so. It was no other central bank. It was the Irish Central Bank.

Let us talk about easy decisions. Supporting this Bill should be the easiest decision the Irish Government ever makes. It ends our shameful involvement with Israeli war bonds. We all know we are staring a genocide in the face. Men, women and children are being slaughtered. Children are being burned alive. Today is the day we say "No more". Today is the day we stand up and are counted. On behalf of everyone who was elected to the Dáil and on behalf of the people who do not have a vote and cannot stop the Central Bank allowing the sale of Israeli war bonds - all they can do is go on the streets, march, carry their banners, write their letters and plead with their politicians to act - today is the day we can act and say "Not in our name".

The Central Bank has written to the finance committee and said, for it to act, it needs either the EU or this Parliament to intervene. That is exactly what this Bill does. It allows for national restrictive measures. It gives the Central Bank exactly what it said it needs and, more important, puts us on the right side of history. There were many times in recent years when we debated important issues in this Dáil, but none was more important than this. I appeal to everyone to do the right thing and vote to end the sale of war bonds through the Irish Central Bank.

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