Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)

What everybody has said has been repetitive. Everyone is on the same page. I believe the Minister of State is also on the same page and would like to see what we can do. Can the Minister of State imagine if anyone in this House had to go hungry? We can walk out the door, go into a canteen and eat. Imagine he was here, looking at the food, while starving, knowing that his brothers, sisters, mother and father are dying around him. That is where the genocide comes into it. Nobody in this Chamber has been untouched by this. I am not targeting the Minister of State.

We said throughout the pandemic that things could not be changed because the legislation said so, but we managed to change it and things changed. We were able to get things done. There has to be a way for us to change things, stand up and show the world that Ireland, in its integrity, is not standing for this. The EU is lacking. The Government is worried about sanctions being taken against us if we stand up. Something has to be done, however.

As a parent, a grandparent and a brother, I am of the view that have to make sure we stand up for people. We have to find the one thing that might show leadership to other countries. If it means going hungry for a week, maybe we need to do that in order that people realise what is happening. It is genocide. We see in our history books that 1 million people died here in the 1800s. People were displaced. The scars from that still survive, carried on over generations. What will the scars for this generation in Palestine be like? Israel is trying to take the people of Gaza out of existence. Nobody has a right to take away anyone's existence.

Anything we can do to make a change, we must do. The one thing we need is to be united in this Chamber to make sure we make a change. We need to find a solution and go outside whatever regulatory body the Minister of State is trying to protect. We need to give leadership and show people in Ireland that we are willing to stand up and say that enough is enough. The Minister of State would like to do that. He would like to find a way forward in order to do it. All Members would stand with the Minister of State if he found a solution. We need to make sure that we stand up. We need to show that we do not stand for women, children and people being bombed in hospitals. We stand with the people of Gaza.

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