Joe Flaherty (Fianna Fail)

The people of Ireland, almost in our entirety, are shocked at what is ongoing in the Middle East. Ireland has been very much in the vanguard when it comes to pressing the case for Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank. No country of our size has done more. We have dragged many of the larger European countries to the table and emphasised at European level, national level and at every opportunity that what is taking place in the Middle East is nothing short of wanton destruction and genocide. However, we are dealing with a nation that does not understand a proportional or rational response to any situation. The Israelis are simply not going to react rationally to any situation. We continue to do as we have consistently done since the 1970s. Fianna Fáil was to the fore as far back as then in acknowledging what was happening in the Middle East.

I echo the sentiments of colleagues for Senator Chris Andrews. As I understand it, nine Irish nationals have possibly been detained. One such member of the flotilla is Naoise Dolan, who is connected to my county of Longford through her grandparents. We are obviously concerned for all of those people and send them our best wishes. I will be impressing upon the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach to do everything possible to get the people who are detained released.

However, I take issue with one point. Last night, Sinn Féin released a video of Chris Andrews that was clearly recorded before he left. In that video, he claimed he had been kidnapped. Chris Andrews-----