Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I formally second my colleague, Senator Ruane’s amendment to the Order of Business. I support Senator Gavan’s recommendation about our nurses, from student nurses up to those who are trying to put together teams who are managing entirely unwieldy situations in our hospitals. We need to look at a crisis not only in recruitment but also in retention of our nursing staff. For a country with the resources it has to have to draw so deeply on the goodwill and extra hours of the nursing personnel is unacceptable and there must be a complete review of how these issues are approached.

I also wish to speak briefly on northern Gaza and Lebanon. An earlier speaker welcomed that the Attorney General seemed to have reviewed his advice in respect of the occupied territories Bill. Of course I welcome that and we look forward to it, but it is very important we would not go into an election with the suggestion we might in the future do a revised version of the occupied territories Bill and that there is no need to worry as that is enough. It is not enough, especially when we see the crisis that is unfolding currently. It is also crucial to remember the context. The International Court of Justice changed the context somewhat but not the facts. In fact, our Bill was always legal. It was what was required when we look to the fact of illegal settlements on occupied land. All the International Court of Justice has confirmed is the duties of third states being to not entrench and support through trade those illegal settlements on occupied land. It is simply a confirmation of what we knew.

That is an action we need to take because it is the right thing to do. What we need to do in terms of pressure points on Israel is a whole other set of actions we need to take. That means cutting off the flow of money we are seeing through the association agreement and ensuring we are not complicit in the flow of arms through Shannon, as was mentioned. It is interesting that we were told the occupied territories Bill was not legal but now it possibly is, and similarly we were told not to worry about flights over Ireland but then the reports told us that flights are carrying arms over Ireland and we do not know whether they are going to be used in Lebanon or in the appalling things we are seeing unfolding in north Gaza at the moment. There is a huge responsibility on this and in relation to dual use. Will the Leader arrange for us to have a debate, in particular before the end of this term, in respect of those actions that can be taken on arms flights and, in particular, dual-use goods where the licences have been issued by our State to feed the technology of war?