Air Navigation and Transport (Arms Embargo) Bill 2024 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-22 ============================================================ Jerry Buttimer (FG), Cork South-Central Gabhaim mo bhuíochas le gach Seanadóir a bhí páirteach sa chuid seo den díospóireacht. The first thing is that we will not oppose the amendment. Second, and I am taking this for the Minister but I am also speaking in a personal capacity as well as from the Government side, I do not know anybody who supports what is happening in the world today. It is important that we agree on a number of things. The principles are first of all that the international rules-based order must be upheld at all times. I have travelled with Senator Clifford-Lee and Senator Ahearn to the Kyiv Inter-Parliamentary Union, IPU. As Cathaoirleach of this House I spoke very strongly at the IPU in support of the Palestinian people and against what is happening in the world today. Senator Clonan is right and I completely agree with him. I said it here last week. I am 19 years a Member of the Houses of the Oireachtas and in my wildest dreams, or any kind of the dream, I never thought that an American president would behave as he is doing. He is showing scant regard to all of us around the world, in particular to the institutions of the United Nations and ICJ, or even basic decency to the likes of the European Union, for example. I do not agree with Senator Clonan that we are being carefree about our troops. On the contrary, the Minister for Defence and Government, along with the Chief of Staff, are very much aware of their responsibilities to our troops. It is important we send a message from this House that our Government will always protect and look after our troops. I would like that to be said because it is very clear. I have met our troops, visited them and spoken to them. I recognise the point the Senator is making about the flagrancy, or rather the vagaries, and we have seen the killing of troops in Lebanon. I do not mean to be controversial but something and somewhere has to look at the whole structure of the United Nations in the wider context of our debate. Two of the big five have a veto to block reform and block sending troops to Lebanon for peacekeeping, for example, which we all know is required. I do not agree with Senator Higgins, though I fully respect and admire her passion. We have been leaders in the world. Others are following us. She spoke about Sánchez but he is following us. If we are right, we need to reflect on the EU-Israel agreement as a European Union. We must respect human rights. We have to. I was in China for St. Patrick's Day and I spoke on human rights. I did not demur from my responsibility and my role as a member of the Irish Parliament or Irish Government. We woke up this morning to the President again putting up a post about continuing the ceasefire. Our Government is being quite clear about de-escalation and the end of the conflict because there is no good in what is happening. Senator Clonan is right about Colin Powell. He was a man we all respected and admired, and what happened regarding his comments about weapons of mass destruction? Nothing. Look what happened then. The sad part is there are other actors in the world, and at a time when he is under pressure otherwise, you have to say the Prime Minister of the UK has stood up and has not been railroaded into action that could have had catastrophic consequences more profound than we currently have. It is important in this debate that we adhere to the fact that we are looking at the whole point of upholding the rule of law. Senator Higgins speaks about consistency. I hope we are consistent. We are consistent. I commend her on what she is doing and what she has said, and I heard her in this House as a Member and hear her now as a Minister of State. I would think Government is acting on the same page though maybe along different lines. However, we share the same common bond of respect for law and respect for life. In this context it is about ensuring our Government, as the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, said here before, is not promising things it cannot do. We will not be opposing the amendment. As a member of the Government, as a politician and as a citizen, I am appalled, as we all are, by what is happening in the world today. We all want to see this conflict end for a variety of reasons, but one of them has to be that the President of America cannot just bypass all international norms and do what he wants on a whim. The sad part for me, though this may be for a different debate, is the UN has been rendered useless. We are embarking on the journey of appointing a new Secretary General of the United Nations. That appointment has to reflect where we are in the world, geopolitically, today. We have a new secretary general of the IPU being appointed. --- 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/seanad/2026-04-22/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:50+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-04-22