Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-21
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Helen McEntee (FG), Meath East

I will work closely with Kaja Kallas, who is the High Representative and who chairs the meeting but who I will be working closely with throughout the Presidency, to ensure that the situation in the Middle East, in Gaza and in the West Bank, is firmly on the agenda and that a number of actions will be taken. Ireland will have to be a neutral arbiter as we are for any of the files or Councils that we chair and that happen throughout our Presidency. I assure Deputy O'Gorman, as has been the case in my discussions with Kaja Kallas, that we will have this particular issue firmly on the agenda. There are a number of things I believe we need to do more on.
We need to press not just the votes that I have spoken about on the EU-Israel association agreement, the banning of trade, the sanctions we approved last week, but also the need for greater levels of humanitarian access. At every single Council meeting I attend we get an update from the Commission saying that not enough aid is getting in. We are seeing figures being put out that do not reflect the fact that half of the trucks going in do not have food but only products that can be sold that people cannot afford. There is so much we need to do at a European level to keep this on the agenda. I am absolutely determined to do so and I assure the Deputy that this matter will be kept on the agenda during Ireland's Presidency.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:58+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-21