Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am sure the Acting Leader and Leas-Chathaoirleach will join with me and others in recognising the efforts of careful and true diplomacy over rhetoric and rushing to judgment. I refer to the approach taken by the Tánaiste, Deputy Micheál Martin, around the situation in the Middle East and the careful way he has managed his brief over recent months in reaching a point where today Ireland, together with Norway and Spain, will recognise the State of Palestine.

There have been motions in this House and elsewhere in an effort to make certain statements on occasion. While these were important in isolation, they did recognise the big prize. The big prize for me today is that this State has reached a point where the majority of the Irish people are in support of the Government. We are in tandem with two other nations and I suspect others are in a process of moving towards that. Over 140 nations around the world now recognise Palestine. It has been slow and arduous to bring people on that journey. There are historic reasons why some countries have yet to get there but the work of the Tánaiste, in particular, and his officials in the Department of Foreign Affairs, has been slow and painstaking. They were criticised along the way for not saying things and doing things on occasion. That now pales into insignificance when we see the point we have reached. There has to be a new direction towards the two-state solution, which was on the cards a number of decades ago and now has to become centre-stage again as we try to bring about the conditions for a peaceful settlement.

Of course the first thing that will have to happen is a ceasefire. The release of hostages will have to be the next step, then a slow journey towards rebuilding some kind of normalised society. The efforts by some, and particularly by the Israeli Government, to portray Ireland as somehow supporting Hamas were a deflection and I am glad the mainstream of Irish society did not really take on board the idea of creating a video with Irish dancers and Irish music while Hamas terrorists committed outrageous crimes.It does not do anything for international diplomacy. Israel would have been better advised to have started talking to leaders of its own government and within its political circles about how it might use diplomacy towards a lasting and peaceful settlement. Of course, there is nothing in the decision taken by the three states that would be in any way supportive of the outrageous actions of Hamas last October. Hamas is a terrorist organisation that has done great damage to the Palestinian people, but it is the Palestinian people who are important here. There is continued bombardment of their safe zones, settlements and encampments they have been asked to move to. We saw 14 of them were killed the other day, which was outrageous, and at a time when Israel has said it is just going after Hamas. The response is not proportionate and the ICJ has identified that. Let us hope the hard work of Ireland pays dividends. Some have talked about us being involved in military alliances and moving in certain ways. We have really shown that the best comes out in Ireland when trying to find peaceful solutions and in being actors towards delivering for peace. Again, we see that by the decision that has been taken today.