Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend Senator Black on organising the screening of the film "This is Palestine" by John and Gerry McColgan and on her words today. It is a powerful film and is free to download from the Trócaire website. All of us should try to share the film. What it shows of the Palestinian people's suffering is truly shocking. I particularly welcome Senator Noone's attendance for some of the screening yesterday. In what I hope is a non-party political way, I ask for everyone's co-operation in asking the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to recognise the state of Palestine. The vote has already taken place and there is widespread support for this. Every day that the Minister refuses to formally recognise Palestine is a day on which he is implicitly supporting an apartheid state. No one in this Chamber should be prepared to stand over that. I ask for the Acting Leader's co-operation in that regard.

There was a very disturbing meeting of the jobs committee yesterday and there was cross-party agreement on the need for an urgent examination of practices within the fishing industry. I will not go into detail in the short time I have. One particularly disturbing point was that the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland, MRCI, has repeatedly requested a meeting with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine but he has refused to do so. I ask that the Minister come to the Chamber to debate the practices in the fishing industry. There was cross-party agreement that those practices are shocking. I ask also for a commitment from the Minister to meet the MRCI as a matter of urgency.