Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)

The Deputy just happened to be the first person.

In relation to Palestine and the ceasefire, I want to ask the Taoiseach, "What now?" What should be the approach of the Government in relation to what has happened?

Obviously, any respite for the people of Gaza and for the children of Gaza from the genocide that they have endured for almost two years is hugely welcome. However, of the people who are in charge of this peace deal, Netanyahu was a war criminal last week. He is a war criminal this week. Donald Trump has funded a genocide for 20 months. There was a ceasefire when Donald Trump came to power. These are the people who are congratulating themselves for ending a genocide that they are responsible for.

Do Palestinian lives matter? Should Palestinian people have a say? I want to ask the Taoiseach about a post he put up on Twitter yesterday. The Taoiseach welcomed the release of the Israeli hostages, as we all do, but he made absolutely no mention of the Palestinian hostages who were released - people who were seen emaciated talking about torture beyond belief. Many of them found out that their families are dead. Some of them are children. An autistic boy was released from captivity yesterday and there are lots of other children still in prison. A lot of people found the Taoiseach's approach quite unbelievable - not one mention. For a state that is meant to support the Palestinian State and the Palestinian people, the Taoiseach only referred to the Israeli hostages, not the thousands of Palestinian hostages. It was quite unbelievable. It speaks to me of an approach that is going to happen where we will all move on now and pretend that Netanyahu was not a war criminal, pretend that Donald Trump is a hero and that the Palestinian people will have no say in their own fate going forward on this peace deal. I wonder what the Taoiseach has to say about that. A lot of people commented on it last night. The Taoiseach still has not put anything else up either.

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