Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)

I have a couple of questions. Will the Tánaiste give a date for the occupied territories Bill? He mentioned the complexities in relation to Israeli arms flights over Ireland. There is a danger that people can hide behind complexities. The Ditch has reported that the Irish State authorities in the last two months have assisted FedEx flights flying through Irish territory as they illegally carried F-35 combat jet parts to an Israel Defense Forces air base. The F-35 fighter jets have dropped 900 kg bombs on Gaza. It is a significant issue that our Defence Forces and our territory would facilitate these flights happening. If The Ditch can get to the heart of the contents of those flights, it is very hard to see that the Irish Government cannot actually put a stop to this or at least use the current law. There is a law currently that states that the carriage of munitions of war through Irish airspace without permission from the Minister for Transport is a criminal offence punishable by up to three years' imprisonment. We should be pulling every single lever to make sure we have an immediate response to actual events that are leading to the deaths of men, women and children in Gaza, yet we are not seeing that immediacy. We are seeing prevarication in relation to actual steps that we could take now.

See this speech in context