Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

First, I welcome our new colleague, Senator Nikki Bradley, to the House. I understand that she is a motivational speaker. Maybe we can put her in touch with the Spanish football team before Sunday. On a serious note, she is very welcome and I look forward to working with her.

The first issue I wish to raise relates to the seven Sinn Féin MPs who were on the plinth earlier this morning. It is great to have them here. We are now the largest party in local government, in the Assembly and in Westminster. Looking at the timeline over the past 20 years, one will see a fundamental change in terms of the Six Counties and politics. As Michelle O'Neill said, it is time for a constitutional conversation. Indeed, it is already happening. I pay tribute to Deputy Leo Varadkar's very positive contribution to the Ireland's Future debate just a few weeks ago, and those of others. All of us need to think about how we can make a more inclusive Ireland as part of that conversation. One particular way we can do that is to give our MPs in the North, of all persuasions, speaking rights here in the Oireachtas. The former Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, committed to doing that a couple of decades ago and we need to see that happening. I would appreciate all-party support in that regard. It is something that I may revisit in September. None of us should be afraid of giving speaking rights in this Oireachtas to politicians who have been democratically elected across Ireland. If we are serious about building a united Ireland, we should start right there.

The second issue I raise relates to the occupation of Palestine and the ongoing genocide there. We found out this week that the IDF occupation forces used the so-called Hannibal directive on 7 October. This was reported in Haaretz, a very credible Israeli newspaper. In essence, what that means is that hundreds of people who died that day in the horrific action by Hamas were actually killed by Israeli forces. That has become clear this week and we need to very cognisant of that. According to The Lancet, a very credible medical journal based in Britain, the real death toll is likely to be 186,000 or 8% of the Palestinian population. Let us be absolutely clear that what we are witnessing is genocide and it is ongoing as we speak this morning. I detailed last week the huge role the US military plays in supplying thousands of cluster bombs, munitions and rockets that enable Israel to keep going. What we need to address now is Shannon Airport's role in this. We really need to address it because there have been 11 direct flights to and from Israel since 7 October and 85 additional US military flights to distribution points across the Middle East. We all know the role of the US in this. I have said for years that there should be no room for the US military in Shannon. This is not a new position; it is the position that Sinn Féin has adopted for decades. I call for an urgent debate on this matter. We cannot on the one hand say we are against genocide and then, on the other, turn a blind eye to the US military's role through our civilian airport in Shannon in supporting that genocide. It is not good enough. We need to do more. We need to see sanctions against the Israeli state, real action on the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018 and we need to stand by the Palestinian people much more than we have done.