Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chairman. Through the Chair, we have acknowledged, as has the Minister, that people have deeply held and passionate views on these issues, so the Leader should at the very least afford us the courtesy of an opportunity to express those views without the kind of interruption we have seen.

Nelson Mandela attended a joint sitting of the Houses in the early 1990s. He said that what had made the practical difference on the part of the Irish people was definitive action in the form of their boycott and solidarity. That can make the difference in the Bill that will be before the House today. The Minister asked where supporting that Bill would leave him as an Irish Government Minister. It would leave him on the side of right. It would leave him on the side of Mandela. It would leave him on the side of justice. I encourage the Minister, the Government and colleagues in Fine Gael to reconsider the Bill and what is happening in Palestine and to look at the will of the House and the majority of Irish people, who want to see us take this mode of solidarity.