Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-07
============================================================

Helen McEntee (FG), Meath East

I am very clear that we are committed to the Bill. I am very clear on that and I cannot stress that enough. In terms of the flotilla, this is the second flotilla. With the first flotilla, our representatives on the ground responded immediately to those who were in Israel. They were some of the first citizens who were brought home. With regard to this current flotilla, I condemned outright the actions taken by Israel in international waters. This was a clear violation of international law. I made it very clear that this was a breach. We had officials on the ground who supported those people immediately and who made sure those who were brought to shore in Greece were provided with the support and assistance they required. I have to stress that our advice to people is not to travel in the region. I have condemned the actions of Israel. I have made sure our officials and our team are on the ground supporting those people but again I stress our advice is not to travel to the region. It was clear where they were headed to and the advice is not to travel. To anybody who is taken off the flotilla to decide to continue in that vein, our advice has to be to advise against that.
Again, it is not inaction and it is not just words. We are taking action. My actions in recent times in trying to bring together the European Union to respond more collectively is how I believe we will gain respect and make sure we have a greater impact.

---

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/2026-05-07/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:46+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-07