Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)

The Irish Government must move to stop the flow of blood money from Ireland to Israel. The Minister tells us why it cannot be done but he directly contradicts the legal advice the Opposition received from the Oireachtas's own legal advisers. When Sinn Féin brought forward a Bill to end Ireland's complicity with genocide, it was backed by sound legal advice which clearly stated that the Bill was compliant with Irish, European and international law. Under EU law, Ireland is fully entitled to unilaterally restrict access to its financial services. When it comes to the sale of war bonds that go towards bombs and bullets that are taking Palestinian lives in a genocide, we have no choice in the matter.

The Central Bank has given permission for these bonds to be sold through Ireland.

The Government is authorised to advise it that this should not be permitted, but it took the decision not to give that advice. Stopping the sale of these bonds is a concrete, tangible action that Ireland can take in the stand against genocide.

In his speech, the Minister said Ireland's persistent advocacy on behalf of the people in Gaza at EU level is yielding tangible results. Is he for real? Does he not see what is happening? Gaza has been flattened to the ground. People are starving and the Minister is saying in his speech that his approach is yielding tangible results. Israel is conducting a campaign that began as collective punishment and has now moved to ethnic cleansing. Ireland cannot be a conduit for blood money. We know what the bonds are going towards. We have the legal authority to do something. It is time for us to act. It is time for us to stand up and say "No".

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