Eileen Flynn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

When the Senator is ready. Is that okay? Okay. Again, an estimated 200 children are dying a day in Palestine. In six months, that will be more than 10,000 children. Ten thousand children will have died, with us sitting by, having weapons there in our name.

Our Bill is very easy. It is a no-brainer Bill. If we really recognise Palestine as a state, we need to put our actions with that. We cannot be all talk. That is one thing about this Government. We are talking the talk but we are not walking the walk, unfortunately. At an international level, all over the whole world, people are watching our leadership. As my colleague, Senator Frances Black, said, I welcome that leadership standing up for the Palestinian people. Today, we say no weapons are landing in Palestine in our name.

I do not mean to sound in any way ignorant, smart or anything like that, but the Minister is a leader in his own right. Today is his opportunity to show that leadership and say that he will support this Bill today and we will implement it tomorrow, instead of having 10,000 children die while we wait for this Bill to pass. Even at that, the Government will be off facing elections and so on. Again, this is a pure cop-out. I have the height of respect for the Minister at a personal level and I am very disappointed to see this cop-out to the Palestinian people today. That is all I have to say.