Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)

I will take nine minutes and Deputy Healy will take three. I will start by adding our condemnation of the horrendous attack on the synagogue in Britain.

We should be very clear about what we saw last night. It was an act of piracy in international waters. The Israeli special forces unit Shayetet 13 surrounded 40-something flotilla boats, sprayed a whole number of them with heavy water cannons, rammed a number of small boats and then boarded them with armed soldiers. These boats were in international waters carrying baby formula, food and medicine to a people who are being deliberately starved and having famine imposed on them by Israel. These people have been kidnapped. They have not been detained; they have been kidnapped in international waters and are being taken against their will to Ashdod, probably, which is the usual spot.

I was in here last night and watching the live feed like millions of people around the world. I felt that in those pictures we had the best of humanity - ordinary people - on display. I had the pleasure of spending two weeks with hundreds of them in Tunis. They are extraordinary people in many ways but ordinary people in terms of the lives they lead as nurses, civil servants, a Senator, a poet. These people are driven to do what they can and put their lives on the line to try to stop a genocide. We saw the best of humanity, combined with the worst of humanity as these Israeli soldiers boarded their boats in order to stop aid getting through to a starving population.

It was very similar to the experience we had in 2011 on the flotilla I participated in. Senator Chris Andrews and many others were part of that. It is a terrifying experience for Israeli soldiers to board your boat. They are clearly hyped up. They have got big guns, they are pointing them at you and you are highly aware they have been told you are Hamas terrorists or whatever else. This is David and Goliath stuff. Israel is armed by the world's richest countries and has one of the richest, most armed militaries, with support from the most powerful countries in the world to inflict this genocide on ordinary people armed with nothing other than baby formula, food and medicine. It says everything about the nature of this Israeli State, the nature of this genocide and the nature of this apartheid State that they engage in military action to stop people bringing in humanitarian aid.

I want to say one thing to the participants in the flotilla. When we were in Tunis, we spoke about two key parts of our mission. One was to break the siege and open a people's humanitarian corridor to allow aid to flow. It is clear that is not going to be achieved. An obligation goes back onto states to bring aid and ensure the blockade is broken. The other aim was to highlight the complicity of Western states or their failure to act, and to bring pressure to bear on Governments around the world. That aim of the mission has been achieved. A new impetus has been given to the global movement of resistance. We saw last night huge protests breaking out spontaneously at midnight, in a whole number of countries, of people saying since they have blocked the flotilla getting through, let us block everything. Italian unions have called a general strike for tomorrow. All of us need to now redouble our efforts to stop the support, arming and enabling of genocide. Saturday's national protest called by the IPSC, at 12.30 p.m. at the Garden of Remembrance, can be absolutely enormous now as people flood onto the streets.

There are people outside the Dáil right now protesting. Just like the Italian workers, we need to put workers' action on the agenda. I know Irish Healthcare Workers for Palestine has called a day of workers' action on 16 October.

I wish to focus in on some questions. The Tánaiste mentioned earlier about the ambassador making clear our expectation that our citizens would be treated fully in line with international law. To clarify, does the Tánaiste agree that already our citizens have not been treated in line with international law? The other thing I would say to him is that we cannot trust the Israeli state about anything. We know that on a much bigger scale. I can tell about our experience when we were brought to Ashdod. The Irish ambassador was there. All sorts of commitments were made to us. We were told we would get everything back and we would be back on a plane within 24 hours if we got off the boat now and there would be no strip searching, no mistreatment, etc. Once the ambassador was gone, all of that was gone. We were strip searched and then detained. Our books were taken away from us. We were not given anything for a week. I know there are limits to what the Irish ambassador can do in Israel but all pressure needs to be added to ensure these people are properly treated.

I will move on because a lot of the details in terms of the flotilla and the treatment have been questioned. If the flotilla participants were here, I think they would want me to ask about the broader issues because that is what they are engaged about. It is all eyes on Gaza, not just the flotilla. To pursue the question about the use of Irish airspace, the Tánaiste went on "The Late Late Show" and said he did not think Irish airspace was being used. I asked a Leaders' Question and gave him a dossier to prove that. I got a letter after that from the Minister for Transport stating that an examination was ongoing. We know that examination has been ongoing for more than a year now. I got an answer to a parliamentary question back last week. I asked when the examination commenced and when it would be completed. The answer I got was: "My Department has been engaged in the examination of this matter. This work is still ongoing at the present time." That is really a joke. Is the Government going to take seriously the issue of the overflights? It is not a question of beefing up our military. It is a question of prosecuting the companies that have it on their waybills. The Minister can prosecute the companies. The companies have admitted that they are doing this. It is clearly illegal. Why is the examination taking so long and is the Government going to act on it?

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