Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Yes. Go raibh maith agat agus Lá Fhéile Bríde chomh maith. I reiterate the call I made last week for the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Coveney, to come to the House for statements on the job losses we are seeing. Tech firms continue to make the headlines, with PayPal and HubSpot doing so this morning, but hospitality and retail are also suffering in the form of having to reduce jobs. The news yesterday from Tesco in the UK has also sent a chill down the spines of many people.

A number of Members have spoken of the shocking atrocities and attacks in Palestine that have been taking place, though Operation Breakwater, for many years now. The past nine months especially has seen about 150 Palestinians and 30 Israelis dead. With the new Israeli Government we are going to see those records broken this year and Palestine itself in danger of hitting new lows in the brutalisation of its people. I ask that the new Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Micheál Martin, would come to the Seanad because Ireland cannot continue its usual formula of words. I do not mean to be disparaging when I say that but something needs to change in the international response in the EU and at the UN Security Council. We need to hear from the Minister what Ireland's approach is going to be. There is the long-standing call that we recognise the state of Palestine, we had the Bill from this House on the purchase of goods from illegal settlements, and there is the failure by the State to recognise what is going on in Palestine, which is apartheid. I ask for the Minister, Deputy Martin, to come to the House.