The World Bank estimates that the reconstruction bill for Ukraine will be $486 billion over the next decade. That will continue to rise each day. We are engaged in discussions on short-term recovery efforts including the provision of prefabricated homes to support communities. We have made financial support available to do that. A recovery conference will be held in Berlin in June. There have been 13 targeted sanctions packages so far, with over 2,000 individuals and entities now subject to European Union restricti…

I am extremely concerned by the start of Israel's ground offensive and military operation in Rafah. The international community has been clear that the humanitarian consequences of a large-scale offensive in Rafah would be catastrophic. I urge the parties to make every effort to come to an immediate ceasefire deal. All hostages must be released and further civilian casualties must be avoided. The question of recognition is one that has been the subject of ongoing consideration in line with the programme for Governm…

Ireland and Spain have a very clear direction of travel on this matter. I have said consistently over the past number of months and, indeed, since the Government was formed that, in line with the programme for Government, co-ordination with others and getting as many member states as possible on board is important for Palestinians' right to self-determination and their right to their own state because it has impact internationally. On Friday, there is an important vote at the United Nations General Assembly, which …

What is happening in Rafah and Gaza is absolutely shocking and unacceptable. In our view, it represents a clear violation of international humanitarian law. We have made that clear. Ireland has made submissions to the International Criminal Court, and was one of the few countries to make a strong oral presentation. We had made a written submission long before this war started. We have been strongly supportive of the UN agencies, in particular UNRWA. Our recent intervention in Israel's allegations against UNRWA were…

We never said it was just one strand. It is interesting that Deputy Boyd Barrett argued trenchantly for this for a long time but, once there was the prospect of it happening, he dismissed it, said it was not really that significant and asked whether we could move on now. His asserted solution fails to understand the complexity of the situation, for example, the Arab population within Israel itself.

We have to work in the real world. I respectfully suggest that the Deputy keeps shifting the goalposts.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 54 and 119 together. On 7 March at the European People's Party congress in Bucharest, Ursula von der Leyen was officially named her party’s candidate for a second term as President of the European Commission. In her first term, President von der Leyen has been a strong advocate for the protection of Irish interests, particularly throughout the Brexit process. The Sinn Féin Party was strongly supportive of President von der Leyen and her stance in respect of Brexit. She also provided…

There are clear rules and procedures governing how a President of the Commission is elected or appointed. They are tied up with the elections and there is a two-stage procedure. First, there is the appointment of the Commission by a qualified majority. The European Council will propose a candidate for President of the Commission but then that candidate has to be elected by a majority vote of the Parliament. The second stage then is the appointment of Commissioners and so forth. That is the reality of it. On whoever…

The Deputy is correct in that the Ceann Comhairle, on behalf of this Parliament, invited President von der Leyen at the time, in acknowledgement of the role of the President of the Commission in respect of Brexit and of resolutely defending Ireland's situation vis-à-vis the United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union. Yes, many parties gave a very warm response, including Sinn Féin and others, to President von der Leyen at the time. We do not underestimate the role of the European Commission and of the Eu…

You are. You are against the European Union.

No, you are against it full stop, and you have always voted against it. Always. You have never had a good thing to say about it. There is a bit of hypocrisy going on here too.

Sinn Féin historically has been against the European Union. It is in its DNA to be against the European Union.

I would genuinely like to see who is going forward after the elections and so forth. In any case, I am well used to it at this stage in terms of the flip-flopping and the perspectives. At one level, they will attack-----

It is very serious. That is why the Deputy needs to get serious. I sometimes do not know whether it is the Davy Stockbrockers-----

One second, please. The Chair allowed all of them to interrupt. I want to finish my comments with the following.

Everyone has been over time. I want to make the point that we sometimes get a Davy Stockbrokers view of Sinn Féin policy, we sometimes get a kind of view from the Deputies in here but it depends on who they are talking to, and whether they are talking to the financiers or the developers. They change their tack all of the time.

The same applies to Europe. Sinn Féin spokespeople will sidle off to Europe and have their meetings with the Commission, have their meetings with civil servants and tell them all they have a different view from the one they articulate publicly in the House.

That is what happens with Sinn Féin at the moment. They are talking to different people all of the time with different policies and different perspectives.

I will answer the question the Deputy has tabled and I will then deal with the specifics of his further questions. Sanctions are a tool of the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy and part of a comprehensive approach to the pursuit of EU foreign policy objectives, along with political dialogue and other complementary efforts and instruments. Ireland actively pushed for agreement at EU level on sanctions against violent settlers in the West Bank in addition to further sanctions on Hamas. I welcome the recent adop…

When the Deputy spoke earlier about the International Court of Justice, I do not think he was upfront with the Irish people in terms of how it works, and he was deliberately populist and polemic about it. That has been the case on many issues around this question. Ireland wants to be credible in terms of how it legally intervenes in international courts so that when we do it, we do it with purpose, we do it with credibility and we do it in an informed and substantive way that gets results at the court level. When w…