Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I also extend my welcome and that of the House to our distinguished guests.

We are all looking forward to the tribute to William B. Yeats next Thursday. I thank the Cathaoirleach for his kind invitation. I listened to RTÉ Radio 1 over the weekend, when the day William B. Yeats heard the news that he was the winner of the Nobel Prize was discussed. He had been nominated a number of times. He and his wife looked for some food to have a celebratory meal but all they could find was sausages. They fried their sausages, had a glass of wine with them, and celebrated their wonderful win.

Senator Dooley, along with other Members, spoke about another week of horrific death and destruction in Gaza. When we see the footage of children and babies daily on television, and in newspapers and on our phones, it is absolutely heartbreaking. When we consider that every seven minutes a baby or child dies, and every 15 minutes a woman dies, it brings it into very stark reality. By virtue of an accident of birth, children born in Palestine - they could have been born in any country in the world - are now under a death sentence. I heard somebody who spoke about the horrific situation saying that normally when children are asked what they would like to be when they grow up, they will say a teacher, nurse or politician, but in Palestine children say they will not grow up because they feel they have no future they can look forward to. We certainly should expect more from a modern democracy, such as Israel, than the collective punishment we have seen. There is no doubt that this is a holocaust by another name.