Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the news this morning that as many as 30 Irish citizens will be released from Gaza today. It is absolutely good news to see the first set of Irish citizens leaving the enclave of Gaza since the horrific events started on 7 October. For those living in Gaza, it is every person’s nightmare and the thought of Emily Hand spending her ninth birthday there is horrific.

I listened this morning, as many of us did, to Ibrahim Alagha talking about that bittersweet feeling of himself and his family leaving but knowing they are leaving 2.3 million people behind. I am also glad that Aymen Shaheen and his family have had the opportunity to leave, but I am thinking of Khalid El-Estal, who I listened to on KFM last week. His children, a four-year-old and a one-year-old, are not on the list. Their mam sadly was killed along with his brother, his father and his best friend's wife, and all of his first cousin's family were wiped out. They are not on the list today and we absolutely need to make sure they are on it quite soon.

I want to make a point regarding the ongoing diplomatic realities in the background. There have been some calls for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador. That would obviously lead to the expulsion of the Irish ambassador in Israel, who is central to trying to get our Irish citizens out. I want to make clear that I absolutely condemn the actions of Hamas and the barbaric response of the Israeli armed forces. However, open communication and diplomacy between our Government and the relevant authorities and ambassadors are key to protecting and securing the safety of Irish assistance. If I believed for a moment that expelling an ambassador would lead to peace, a ceasefire or the release of hostages, I would support it, but the reality is that that is not the case. Cutting all diplomatic ties, as has been called for, would leave our citizens in Gaza in an even more precarious situation.

As the Leader knows, we had a meeting earlier with representatives of the Local Authorities Members Association, LAMA. It is worth saying again and again that local authorities in Ireland play a very significant role in housing, planning, roads, environmental protection and fire services, both in a policy and legislative way and in an advocacy and representative way. We have 1,949 elected councillors, who play a very important role in the functioning of their community and their society. Unfortunately, we have one of the most centralised system in any country in the OECD. It is important that we hear their calls both in terms of supporting those who are elected members regarding their gratuity and regarding their representation on the boards that are relevant to all of us and to the working of good government.