Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

We are not standing over any false narrative. We are reiterating long-standing foreign policy and, I think, the long-standing policy of the people of Ireland that there needs to be a two-state solution in the Middle East, that the State of Israel has every right to exist in peace and security and that the people of Palestine have every right to a sovereign state that exists in peace and security. As we know in this country better than many, the only way to get to that point is through political dialogue, not through the genocidal activity we see from the Netanyahu Government.

I am not suggesting the Deputy did not do so but I always like to differentiate between the Government of Israel and the people of Israel because I believe many people in Israel are utterly horrified by the decisions being taken by the Netanyahu Government, which are genocidal, which are war crimes and which are starving children, which is in turn a breach of international law. Nobody in this House comes in and seeks to praise what Ireland is doing. What we do seek to do in this House is outline that, as a small country in the European Union, we are doing everything we can to maximise the pressure on the international community to help bring about a ceasefire. All political parties need to use their own political networks and links in European countries and the United States and everywhere else to try to help amplify that. What we see happening today and what we have seen happening for a very significant period is despicable and is an act of evil. This is evil at work. There is just no other way about that. I say it is evil because the people of this great country have, through their taxes, paid for a very significant amount of aid to get into Gaza, with enough food on trucks paid for by the Irish people to feed at least 6,000 people in Palestine, and for four months those trucks have been parked in Jordan. There is only one reason - no other reason - why those trucks cannot get in, and that is the Israeli blockade. While we want to see an immediate end to the conflict, of course, and we want to see a ceasefire and the release of all the hostages, in the here and now, today, the people in Gaza who are starving could be fed, and it is a political choice of the Israeli Government not to allow that aid in, which is also a war crime.

In Ireland, we will continue to do everything we can and we will continue to work constructively with the Opposition. A very good motion was put down by the Labour Party. Not only did we not oppose it but I will proactively work with the Opposition to advance it. I had very good engagement in the Seanad this morning with Senator Frances Black on the occupied Palestinian territories. We are the first country in Europe to do this. I say this in the hope that other countries now look to Ireland and say, "Hang on, if this little country on the periphery of Europe can pass legislation to ban trade with the occupied Palestinian territories, why can we not do it as well?" I call today, as I hope everybody in this House does, for other countries to replicate what we are doing.

On the issue of services, and before I am misrepresented again, as I constantly seem to be, I have no difficulty with services being included if we can find a legal way forward in that regard. There is no policy difference.

We have a lot of work to do on this. I never buy into the "Opposition good, Government bad" narrative. We are all appalled and sickened by the genocide we are witnessing.

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