Labhrás Ó Murchú (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Given all of the big stories we are currently dealing with, the rally outside Leinster House yesterday did not register on the radar. These were ordinary decent and proud people from rural Ireland. They conducted an exceptionally civilised rally in an attempt to have their voices heard. Given the subject matter, one would imagine it is possible to engage with people whose jobs and communities are at stake.

The Leader programme now operates throughout Europe. A young gentleman from the Czech Republic who is the current president of Leader in Europe has stated that the model now being used is the old Irish model. The European Court of Auditors has given its imprimatur to this model, which is regarded as one of the great success stories to come out of Ireland and which was adopted by all the European countries. In such a context, the Government has decided to change our model. One of the placards at yesterday's rally asked a revealing question, namely, if it is not broken why fix it? This is a case of the small people - the little people if one likes - asking those of us who have a certain standing in public life to listen to what they area saying. I hope it will not be necessary to vote on this issue. I have no doubt that if Members on all sides of this Chamber took the time to read even two or three pages of the documents supplied to us, they will see that what these people are asking for is real and reasonable.

The situation in Gaza has to be worrying for all of us. It has reached the floor of the UN and the UN Security Council has taken an interest. However, I was very disappointed to hear the response given to the Palestinian Government by the Israeli ambassador to the UN. Not only was it dealing with a downtrodden people and slaughtered innocents but, in the UN, the Israeli ambassador was saying the Palestinian Government was representing terrorists. That makes no sense. In any conflict, one has to move forward. We have only to travel a couple of hundred miles from where we sit to see how dialogue and power sharing works. Human rights and humanity demand that we do not continue the slaughter of men, women and children in Gaza. If all the other big stories have taken over, these types of issues will come back to haunt us in years to come. We have a voice on this issue, as does the Dáil. Our Ministers and Governments have always taken an honourable stand on this issue but we need to up our game in light of the urgency of the situation.