Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)

I welcome the fact that the Tánaiste spoke to me while I was on the flotilla and spoke to a Member of the other House, Senator Chris Andrews. I know that the Tánaiste and the Department over there and here did a lot of work.

The Irish media sometimes portrays this as our having been detained. We were not. We were illegally captured in international waters. We have international law protecting us. That clearly was not even taken into account by the Israeli Government.

On preserving the ceasefire, 45 UN experts called for the Uniting for Peace Resolution 377(V), part of the UN Charter, to be invoked on 5 September, before the UN General Assembly in New York, which the Tánaiste and the Minister of State attended. It will ensure lasting peace and can be enforced by the international military presence of the UN. What is unique about this is that it can be passed by a two-thirds majority of the UN members in an emergency special session of the General Assembly, outside of a Security Council. Other governments are calling for this and I urge the Irish Government to do the same.

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