Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate. When we were growing up, long before we were in politics, we looked at the news at night and saw the United Nations and said to ourselves, God they are powerful men in suits. We looked at the G7 or the G8 - whatever you want to call it - and said, my God, they are going to solve the problems of the world. To look at the atrocities going on in Gaza at the moment, the UN and the G7 or G8 are standing idly by and letting all this happen. We saw all those guys on television and said they would solve problems because they have power, but they have no power. That is the reality. That is what we have got to face up to. People think they are important but they are not. They do not have the guts to stand up and be counted. In fairness to this Government and especially to all in opposition, we hope the Bill will be brought through shortly. It is good to see some countries in Europe coming on board.

When the Ukraine war started, Europe automatically brought in sanctions and rightly so. It brought in rounds and rounds of sanctions to try to cripple Russia. What have we done to try to cripple Israel's genocide? We have done nothing. Ursula von der Leyen should be ashamed of herself because of the way she has performed as leader of Europe - that is the reality. Sadly, there are a few countries in Europe that still control the European Union and unfortunately we are not one of them. There are a few big countries that nearly decide everything, like we see with the Mercosur deal. It is harrowing to get phone calls from people who would never ring politicians. While they might not understand the whole world of politics, they see children on screens - they have children - and fathers and mothers, people starving, hospitals in bits and no solution. The reality is unless America's deal goes through, there will be no solution now. It shows that America backs Israel. Unless that deal goes through, there will be no other deal on the table. There will be more genocide because Netanyahu does not care for anybody. That is the sad reality.

You wonder what is going on in the world and how we turn a blind eye. Our Taoiseach last week was at the United Nations. A few months ago, we saw what the Taliban did in Syria. There was an earthquake there and I read in the Spanish media - it was not covered in our media - that the men were told they could not pull the women or the children out. That is sickening. When we see someone from Al-Qaeda at that conference addressing something even though they are outlaws, we must ask where is world order and where is respect. Where are people coming together to work to bring peace to the world? The world is in disarray at the moment.

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