Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2023-10-24
============================================================

Mary Lou McDonald (SF), Dublin Central

The Taoiseach's party has been in government for 12 years. He is in his second stint as Taoiseach. Obviously, one can only assume that he has used that time, as he has claimed, to build relationships. He might inform us about who our allies are on this question, what level of persuasion the Taoiseach has exercised and what work he has done outside the European Council to talk to European and international partners concerning the message of a full and complete ceasefire by all parties.
Let us remember that the Israeli onslaught is absolutely ferocious. This is one of the largest military machines in the world. The fact is that Israel is not exercising a right to defence within the boundaries of international law. The Taoiseach correctly identified collective punishment by Israel as a clear breach of international law. When he speaks to our European partners at the European Council, will he also share with them the view and the reality that Israel is acting outside international law?
The answer is, of course, not a military one; it is a political and diplomatic one. The Taoiseach may say that we are small and therefore ineffectual, but I say that Ireland-----

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2023-10-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:52:19+00:00
Sitting date: 2023-10-24