Joe Conway (Independent)

I would like to say a few words in support of the motion before the House this afternoon, and also to signal the widespread support of the Seanad Independent Group for the sentiments and thrust of the motion. The first thing I wish to do is make an observation I have regarding the conflict as it erupted in October 2023. It is so frequently before us in the media - on television, in the newspapers, in magazines and periodicals - that it is quite easy to find ourselves being slightly anaesthetised by the suffering and the horror of what is going on in Gaza. I suppose that is human nature. It is something journalists describe as overkill. We can get blinded or numbed to the fact that so much of this is going on and so many of the imprecations we make on decent societies and governments go with a bothered ear.

The essence of a humanitarian crisis or response is that it should revolve around compassion - not just compassion as verbally expressed but compassion in action. Not alone do we feel that there is something wrong but there is a human imperative to try to do something about it. As an Irish republican, I am very proud of the Governments we have had, doing what they have been able to do in being leading lights for the advocacy of the people of Palestine in their sufferings, none more so than the Governments since the October outrage on the other side of the coin, namely, the Hamas raid on the section of border with Israel.

Humanitarian help, to me, is an essential part of being - it is a difficult phrase - morally neutral. There is no proviso where you are considering your response to the humanitarian crisis by saying, "If you do that, this should be the case". Humanitarian aid and response is something that should be without condition. It just self-evident as one human to another. If there is an exigency in a humanitarian sense anywhere, then it should be the responsibility of human beings everywhere to try to address this.

It is part of our global solidarity as a republican nation, and it shows an inherent respect that we have for international conventions, most notably the Geneva Convention, which tries to regulate the behaviour of human beings in the execution of conflict, war or strife. All of those things are, to some extent, falling down in the way I see the conflict and crisis in Palestine over the last while. I would describe myself as a full-blown insomniac. It means that I lie awake a lot of the night listening to the BBC World Service. No other station will give you a greater delineation of the mess the world is in by outlining not just the conflict in Gaza but the conflicts in Sudan or the Democratic Republic of Congo, or natural disasters in various places such as Afghanistan, Nepal and Tibet. The list is endless but you wake up, if waking up is the proper expression in the morning, and realise that the world is in a great state of chaos. We are shockingly reluctant to address these things.

Then it is made more manifestly awful in that it is not just what we, probably in a derogatory sense, used to call Third World countries but a lot of this is bolstered by the fact that the humanitarian crisis in Palestine is driven by the world's leading power and one of its major allies in the Middle East, Israel. That is the United States. That is a fundamentally shocking admission for us as people of the First World who are, in many ways, very aligned to the United States. We find ourselves, however, shocked by the way they have taken aid distribution, for example, away from the United Nations and given it to a fellow from the Infidels Motorcycle Club called "Taz" Mulford, who has a long history of Islamophobia.He is the gatekeeper and the guard of the aid that is being given out now, supposedly to the Palestinian helpless and hopeless. What an inversion of morality and logic that is.

I have a few seconds left so I just want to signal our group's manifest support for this motion and our support and admiration for the work done by the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste, and previous Governments, in speaking up for a section of humanity that has been poorly served by the humanitarian response in times past. We look forward to better times to come.