Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)

Throughout my life, which is not the shortest or the longest life, there have been conflicts and atrocities but I cannot remember anything like this. In my whole life, the only thing I can imagine that holds anything like this viciousness, senselessness, waste and slaughter is the genocide in Rwanda. I say that because it is. People would have been reluctant to use that word, but what else can we be talking about than the deliberate destruction of a place, a people and a people's right to live there? With the scenes we see, we could have this debate every week and talk about the fresh hell we have seen on our phones and televisions.

9 o’clock

The most recent image many of us would have seen was a child walking around flames in the school where she was sleeping overnight, which was destroyed. Hospitals have been destroyed, reflecting the inhumanity and the barbarism. Every time we think it has reached a new depth, it reaches even further depths. Deputy Doherty is right; there are people who are desperate to do whatever they can. For most Irish people, it feels there is probably very little they can do. Sometimes people out protesting wonder: what it is for? I suspect that many things the Government has done - and there are things it has done that I have welcomed - would not have happened without pressure from the public.

This is another thing the Irish Government can do. I look forward to hearing the Minister's response but I suspect, much like the occupied territories Bill, it is very easy to say, "Oh, well, there are legal consequences", and not really flesh it out in truth. We have seen leaked Attorney General advice that says this is a policy choice, much as the occupied territories Bill was a policy choice. That policy choice is in front of the Minister and there are things he and the Government can do. The whole basis of the International Court of Justice decision, which underpinned the occupied territories Bill and which forms the legal basis for this, is that the occupation is illegal and sanctions have to happen. Otherwise, Israel will keep acting with impunity.

The Government can do something about that. It can stop Israel. To some extent, we need the rest of the world to act but in terms of what Ireland can do, this is how it can act to ensure that Israel does not continue to act with impunity and that there are sanctions.

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