Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. It is timely and appropriate that we address this and look at everything we possibly can do as a country to effect the change necessary to bring about a peaceful settlement in the Middle East between the State of Israel and what I believe should be the State of Palestine. Like everyone in this House, I absolutely concur that the actions taken by Israel in its right to defend itself as a result of what happened last October has been, without a doubt, phenomenally disproportionate. The actions can only be described as crimes of genocide and in my view will ultimately be decided in another forum as being war crimes and crimes against humanity. It is devastating for all of us. I am sure that right-minded individuals, regardless of where their loyalties lie or whether they are of Israeli origin or wherever, accept that the wanton slaughter of civilians - men, women and children - at the scale that it is going on here is without precedent in recent times. We should rightly admonish this at every possible opportunity.

I understand the motivation behind the legislation. We are often concerned at the potential for the misuse of our airspace. There are a couple of things that have to be taken into consideration. I second the amendment to the motion proposing a second reading of the Bill. The six months proposed in the amendment is an appropriate amount of time because the Bill seeks to shift a significant policy decision that existed for many years whereby those who use our airspace - in the main we are talking about the United States of America - are considered friendly states to us in diplomatic terms. To make a very significant shift by passing the Bill without going through the appropriate background diplomacy and looking at the impacts of the legislation would be to rush things. While I fully understand the motivation behind it, passing the Bill today to introduce a level of checks tomorrow would be a statement only. It would not stop what is going on at the moment. We previously had debates here about sending home the ambassador. I will have to check the record but I may on occasion have suggested that we send home the ambassador to Israel. I have reflected on the approach taken by the Government, particularly as led by the Tánaiste in his cautious approach to not reacting without consideration. With the actions of the Irish Government in recent months we have reached a point where we now recognise Palestine as a state and the Israeli Government has withdrawn its own ambassador. That is actually a stronger statement than it would have been if we asked her to leave a number of months ago.

I am a believer in the careful diplomatic work that needs to be done. I accept there are people who believe there are munitions coming through Irish airspace. One of the speakers said she knows that to be the case. I do not know that and I do not think it is widely known. If somebody believes they have information on it, then let us share that in a collegial way.If we have some hard evidence, we should look at the immediate response that has been talked about. As the Fianna Fáil spokesperson on transport, I am happy to work with Senators on the other side to try to reach a point at which we satisfy the needs of society and respond appropriately to any risk or threat from friendly nations. If there is evidence or information to suggest their actions are not genuine and they are finding a way around Irish legislation in a manner that requires the legislation to be updated, let us do so. We can do that if we feel there is a threat or risk, or if there has already been some level of subterfuge.