Brian Stanley (Laois, Independent)

The slaughter in Gaza continues this week. We still see innocent men, women and children mowed down by tank fire and massive aerial bombardments while they queue for food, but also in camps where people are trying to shelter, who have been displaced for the one hundredth time in the past two years. There is a moral and political responsibility on us to do all we can to put pressure on the terrorist State of Israel. Last week, the Government refused to back a measure that would do just that, by refusing to back a proposal to block the Central Bank from approving the prospectus for the sale of Israeli bonds. The Minister for Finance claimed his hands are tied and that the Government could not intervene with the State bank's approval of bonds. The Taoiseach went further. He stated: "that the Central Bank does not approve, issue, sell or oversee the sale of Israeli bonds." The Governor of the Central Bank, Gabriel Makhlouf, has said different. He has contradicted what the Taoiseach said. He states the Central Bank could decline to approve the sale of Israeli bonds if "national restrictive measures" were put in place.

See this speech in context