Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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7. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on his engagement with French Prime Minister. [50884/23]

Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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9. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on his engagement with the French Prime Minister. [51894/23]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 7 to 9, inclusive, together.

I met with the Prime Minister of France, Élisabeth Borne, in Government Buildings on Monday, 13 November. We discussed the close and strengthening ties between our two countries, as well as current EU and international issues. France is Ireland’s nearest neighbour in the European Union, and we share a deep commitment to the European project as the bedrock of peace, prosperity and well-being on our Continent. We acknowledged the significant progress being made under our joint plan of action for bilateral co-operation, which was agreed when President Macron visited Dublin in 2021.

Highlights include new education and research partnerships between Irish and French institutions and significantly expanded transport links. Work is under way on integrated sail-rail ticketing between Ireland and France, which we hope to have in place for the Paris Olympic Games next year. Prime Minister Borne and I welcomed the joint declaration of intent on energy transition co-operation that was signed by the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and his French counterpart, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, during the visit. Construction of the Celtic interconnector between France and Ireland has now commenced. I hope we will see a second interconnector to France in the coming years because we will need it.

In our discussion of shared EU challenges, Prime Minister Borne and I agreed that Europe needs to improve its competitiveness and resilience, and accelerate the green and digital transitions, while responding to a very uncertain world. We also discussed the mid-term review of the EU budget, and the forthcoming discussion at the December European Council on EU enlargement. We reiterated our shared and unwavering support to Ukraine and its people, and our continued commitment to providing it with the financial and other supports it needs. We also discussed the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the West Bank, the urgent need for a ceasefire and the importance of EU partners working together to bring about a just and lasting peace between Israel and Palestine, based on a two-state solution.

France and Ireland will continue to work closely on these and other issues, both within the EU and at the UN. Following our meeting at Government Buildings, I accompanied Prime Minister Borne to Iveagh House where we both spoke at a conference to mark the 225th anniversary of the Year of the French, when forces of the French Republic sailed from La Rochelle to Killala help the Irish rebellion in 1798.

Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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The Israeli war cabinet minister, Yoav Gallant, recently said, "There will be a short pause and then we will continue operating with full military power." He also said, "Our strength will be greater, and it will take place throughout the entire strip.” Interesting that he referred to "the entire strip" because Israel has forced huge numbers of people to leave northern Gaza and go to southern Gaza. It has been made clear that after the pause, Israel will go into southern Gaza. It is saying the population should move west to Al-Mawasi which is a tiny strip of land where, by the way, there are zero hospitals. That would be an incredible disaster. Gallant spoke about "the entire strip". I wonder if that was a slip of the tongue. When the Taoiseach met the French Prime Minister, no doubt they discussed putting diplomatic pressure on Israel. I have to say that if we are talking about diplomatic pressure, the Government has been weak in its response to the fuss the Israeli state made about the Taoiseach's tweet. I think the Government was very weak in relation to that. Was there any discussion with the French Prime Minister about going beyond mere diplomatic pressure? Was there any discussion about real economic pressure that would bite, bear down on the Israeli state and force it to backtrack on what it has been doing - this genocide - over the last period of time? I would like to hear if there was any discussion on that.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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In the Taoiseach's talks with the French Prime Minister, I wonder if there was any discussion about what was then an upcoming decision by the European Commission - since made - to effectively tighten the screws on Palestinian aid when Gaza has been reduced to rubble and people are left without food, water, and fuel? In the aftermath of 7 October, the European Commission announced it would review Palestinian development aid from the European Union. It completed that review, which found that existing safeguards "work well" and said that "no evidence has been found to date that money has been diverted for unintended purposes." Then why on earth is the Commission planning to impose stricter controls on an aid system that has not had any problems and when there has not been any diversion of funds? The consequence is that €39 million of money due to NGOs and civil society organisations is being held up until new paperwork is submitted. This money is urgently needed on the ground. This happens in the context whereby aid to Palestine has decreased dramatically since Hungary's Várhelyi took over as the relevant Commissioner and since the Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, originally went to Israel and gave a green light for the genocidal policy that has been unleashed. I wonder whether the Taoiseach discussed it with the French Prime Minister and whether the Irish Government is opposed to this restriction.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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In the 1980s Governments across the world stubbornly resisted the demand to impose sanctions on the apartheid South African regime for its horrible racist system. It took people power and the resistance of black people in South Africa to eventually force the world to recognise that apartheid South Africa had no place in the civilised world. When the Taoiseach is having discussions with the French Prime Minister or other European counterparts, is there any moment when he begins to wonder whether that analogy should apply to the apartheid state of Israel after what it has done over the past six weeks? For example, the deputy speaker of the Knesset said last week that "We are being too humane" in Gaza, and that they should burn it? This is the deputy speaker of the Israeli Parliament. Israeli ministers have described all Palestinians as "animals". It is official policy of the Israeli Government to starve the entire population. It has displaced - ethnically cleansed - more than a million Gazans in six weeks and killed nearly 20,000 of them.

Then, Israel hauled our ambassador in for reprimand after conducting a massacre and being accused by every human rights organisation worth its salt of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity not just during the last six weeks but for decades. Is there any little part of the Taoiseach and his EU counterparts that says there is something wrong with this state, it is not a normal state, that it is guilty of the most horrendous crimes and maybe we should consider taking the attitude we took to apartheid South Africa, given its crimes are actually worse? I honestly ask the Taoiseach because it beggars belief that Israel reprimanded us and still our Government will not take sanctions against it for the criminal activities in which it is engaged.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I recognise Deputy Haughey for talking about the Year of the French in 1798. It is fascinating how it still lives on in our folk memory even though it was a relatively small force and ultimately unsuccessful. It led to the creation of Ireland's first republic, the short-lived Republic of Connacht. We know from historical accounts that people were impressed to see a citizen army in operation in a way they had not seen previously. It helped inspire our own form of republicanism - genuine republicanism - in the following centuries.

Concerning my conversation with Prime Minister Borne, it was a few weeks ago, before the ceasefire was in place. Our focus was on a ceasefire rather than the medium or long term. It was also a day or two after, I think, she participated in the anti-Semitism march in Paris. We talked about that and the concerns we both have about rising anti-Semitism and rising Islamophobia. From the Irish Government's point of view, we very much welcome the ceasefire in Gaza. It has facilitated the release of hostages taken by Hamas and prisoners taken by Israel, many of whom are teenage boys, in some cases subject to administrative detention for throwing stones. It has also allowed humanitarian aid and supplies into the territory, which is really important. We are calling for an extended ceasefire so that all hostages can be released - all hostages should be released - civilians can get further relief and the killing can stop. When we say ceasefire, to be clear, we mean a ceasefire observed by all sides and parties in the conflict.

EU aid to Palestine has trebled. We increased our aid to the occupied Palestinian territories through UNRWA and other bodies. We are not in favour of new unnecessary restrictions on aid. We know from the aid we and the EU provide to the area that if there is evidence of it being somehow misappropriated, it is extremely weak. I welcome the report on that.

Concerning sanctions, I can only say what I said before. I do not believe sanctions work if they are unilateral. They would likely backfire because there would be retaliation, which is the truth. The whole point of one country imposing sanctions on another is that it should do more harm to the country on which you impose sanctions than to yourself. Sanctions can only work if they are done on a multilateral basis. They only worked in respect of South Africa because they were multilateral.

Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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Did the Taoiseach discuss them with the French Prime Minister?

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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No, we discussed the need for a ceasefire. Thankfully, we have that now and it has facilitated the release of hostages and prisoners and allowed aid to get into Gaza. We did not talk about the medium or long term.

On the other matter, I spoke to our ambassador to Israel last night. She was one of a number of EU ambassadors summoned. I assure the Deputy that she was able to both explain and defend the position of the Irish Government on all of these matters.