Patricia Stephenson (Social Democrats)

Last weekend, Dr. Mike Ryan of the WHO said that if you are not angry, you are not paying attention; if you are not doing something about it, you are complicit in genocide. Last weekend, the Tánaiste said that the world is not doing enough. We have known that the world is not doing enough for the past 20 months and for many years before that. I welcome the well-intentioned and sincere words of the Tánaiste. They are welcome, and I welcome that our Government has acknowledged we are not doing enough. Ireland has not been doing enough, so what more could we do?

We could start today by ensuring no munitions of war pass through our airspace or leave this country in the form of dual-use goods. We could start that today or tomorrow. We have the occupied territories Bill and that could and should be passed immediately. Our Government could seek to trigger an emergency session of the UN General Assembly to adopt Resolution 377(V), the so-called uniting for peace resolution, to recommend collective measures, including sanctions, in this crisis situation.

In Gaza today, 290,000 children are suffering from acute malnutrition. Many of them are at imminent risk of death by starvation. I do not know if anyone has seen children dying of starvation before. I have; I worked in South Sudan. It is terrifying. That is enough children to fill Croke Park three times. This is not a famine caused by drought or natural disasters. It is manufactured by a regime intent on the complete extermination of the Palestinian people by deliberate deprivation.Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur, has made it plain that this is not about defence, it is about destruction. The Israeli Government is moving to annex Gaza completely and erase it physically and politically from the map. What do we do? We issue statements, wring our hands and talk about it. The children of Gaza do not need our sadness or moral outrage. They need our courage, they need us to take action, they need food and water and they need the bombs to stop.

Ireland has always been a voice for justice, peace and humanity, but we have failed to act with sanctions and diplomatic consequences. I implore the Government to stop talking and start acting. Time is running out for the people in Gaza, many of whom are dying. They will be violently forced out of their homes.

We cannot just keep watching this happen. I would welcome a debate. I appreciate that the Tánaiste came to the Chamber a few weeks ago. We ended up talking mostly about tariffs because that was the day that was in it. We need to have a debate about what more we can do and what actions we can take, both domestically and internationally. Ireland has influence, as the Acting Leader, Senator Joe O'Reilly, knows. We have influence in Europe. We need to start taking radical action to exert that. We can no longer sit back and just watch this happen. Time is running out. I cannot reinforce that enough. We are maybe months away from Palestine no longer existing.