Malcolm Noonan (Green Party)

I seek leave to amend the Order of Business to have No. 9 taken before No. 1 to introduce the cross-party Bill on dereliction and building management.

Ibrahim Ammar Saad Al-Qara, Karam Amjad Hafez Shamlakh, Rafif Mahmoud Aref Al-Faqaawi, Al-Anoud Suleiman Jaber Al-Qirinaawi and Hour Mohammed Ibrahim Al-Mamlouk are just five names of infants who never reached the age of one.I thank Senator Stephenson for providing us with this list. It is important to put names to the statistics because the statistics can numb us and nullify the debate. Across various platforms, we are sick of hearing the figures but these are names of babies whose lives will never be realised. They have either been bombed or starved to death by the IDF or the Israeli Government. It is an absolute atrocity that is happening before us all. I welcome that we are having a discussion on this. Every democratic chamber in the world should debate this until pressure is brought to bare on the barbaric regime of Netanyahu and eventually, please God, it will fold. In the meantime, the humanitarian situation is deteriorating by the hour. Aid agencies, such as UNRWA, and all of the United Nations have told us, keep telling us and are pleading for the international community to intervene at a level that is appropriate. At this stage, we require international governments. We require the European Union. Thankfully, some action and movement is coming from some countries. I welcome the intervention by the Taoiseach. I really welcome the bravery of our President for stretching the boundaries of his office to call out this atrocity. It is high time collectively that this Dáil and Seanad continue to highlight these atrocities until they are brought to an end and we can seek justice for the Palestinian people and the people of Gaza.