Absolutely not.

Let me begin by removing any ambiguity that may surround the phrase "collusive behaviour", as applied by the Police Ombudsman in the North, Marie Anderson, regarding her report on the relationship between the RUC and loyalist paramilitaries. Evidence of collusive behaviour is evidence of collusion. Collusion is evidenced throughout the pages of Ms Anderson's report, which details instance after instance where the security forces of the British Government engaged in a concerted campaign of murder against the very ci…

There needs to be openness and transparency, and the British need to be held to account for their dirty war in Ireland.

I welcome the ambassador to the Chamber to listen to an important debate at a difficult time. It is difficult to overstate the significance of what is happening in Ukraine and of the dangers that Russian aggression holds for international peace. The potential for a devastating conflict is, unfortunately, very real. I take this opportunity to restate my party's commitment to the principles inherent in United Nations Resolution 68/262 adopted by the General Assembly on 27 March 2014 concerning the territorial integri…

Maybe the Deputy should have listened to what I said.

Maybe the Deputy should listen to what I said instead of trying to mislead the House.

He tried to mislead.

The Deputy is not; he is trying to mislead. He is being disingenuous.

I thank the commission for its efforts in producing this report. While I do not agree with 100% of its contents, it is a timely and comprehensive report. It outlines a litany of failures under the Minister's watch. That includes the failure to implement previous reports such as the White Paper on Defence and the high-level implementation plan. Essentially, the report deals with the legacy of the Minister's failures. The Minister's inability to address the core issues at the heart of the Defence Forces has resulted …

I firmly believe that if we are allowed to follow the thread of state violence, be that on the streets of Derry, Ballymurphy, Greysteel or Loughinisland, or any of the dozens of sites of state murder across the north, we will be able to uncover a direct link to the Cabinet table of the British Government. This the same British Government that is now attempting to introduce an amnesty for the state actors who have murdered in its name. They bring shame on the ideals of justice. The historical experience of British c…

Following the designation of six Palestinian NGOs last October by Israel, based on no intelligence or data, as terrorist entities, it has now emerged that the European Commission had suspended prior to that designation funding some of these six NGOs. What actions is the Minister taking in terms of having that funding restored? What actions is he taking to try to counter some of the false narratives being put forward by the Israeli authorities about these NGOs?

I assume the Minister is well aware of Israel's intent in this regard, which is to disrupt the activities of these NGOs that have played a critical role in the monitoring, collection and dissemination of information on the apartheid policies of Israel and have been critical in gathering that intelligence for investigations such as those of the International Criminal Court, which is now looking at some of these issues. The move by the European Commission to suspend the funding to these organisations is very concerni…

Time and time again, these allegations have been made by Israel. Following investigations and despite requests, including calls I have heard from the Minister in the past in this Chamber, for the Israeli authorities to hand over the information they have, if indeed they have it, the silence is deafening. This confirms my belief there is no information and these are baseless allegations designed to undermine the excellent work these organisations do in exposing and highlighting the illegal actions by Israel. The mov…

I want to ask the Minister the status of the review of the national action plan on business and human rights. I also want to ask him our position on a UN treaty on the same issue and whether he would be prepared to bring forward binding legislation to ensure that companies are mandatorily obliged to ensure human rights are protected in all of their dealings.

I welcome the updated national action plan. I am sure the Minister will agree Irish companies have a responsibility to respect human rights, workers' rights and environmental standards wherever they operate. Unfortunately, however, this is currently done on a voluntary basis and that is simply not acceptable. If we are serious about respecting human rights, that should be mandatory. There are many delays in respect of the UN treaty, which is unhelpful. We are going into the seventh round of talks and there is consi…

I agree, although I do not think we should be bound by that. We can strengthen whatever comes from the EU and that work needs to start now. For far too long, human rights have been impacted negatively by Irish companies such as the ESB, which imported coal for decades from the Cerrajón mine in Colombia to create electricity in this State while indigenous people's rights were trampled on. Similarly, Airbnb operates in occupied Palestinian territories, and because there is no mandatory binding legislation here, it wa…

The report of the Commission on the Defence Forces was due to be published by now. Has the Minister seen a final draft of the report and can he give us a timeline for when it will be published?

The newly appointed Chief of Staff has a very difficult task at hand. We have an organisation that is on its knees. There is a lot of hope around this commission and its final report. The Minister's comments last night showed poor judgment. They completely undermined the Chief of Staff and the difficult role and task he has at hand. It showed extremely poor judgment on the Minister's behalf. The final report has been long anticipated. There have been a number of leaks and a number of comments attributed to differen…

There is a lot of expectation and hope about what may come from the final report, which we all eagerly await. I hope that timeline can be adhered to. There is also concern over what may come about in terms of proposed reductions in the size of the Army, for example. There are concerns in that regard. The Minister's Cabinet colleague, Deputy Eamon Ryan, made comments yesterday about the potential closure of Cathal Brugha Barracks and a feasibility study, of which he already knows the outcome, that will see the closu…

The Minister should talk to his Cabinet colleague.