I move amendment No. 1: After the fourth paragraph under "recognises:" to insert the following paragraph: "- the ongoing annexation and apartheid practices in the West Bank and the escalation of settler violence since October 2023 and the genocide in Gaza;"

I thank the Fianna Fáil Senators for tabling this motion. We all know the extermination of Palestinian people has been relentless for almost two years and we must do everything we can and do so now. I was gladdened to hear the Minister of State mention the occupied territories Bill; however, he did not actually mention the committee report recommendations, which include services. He mentioned only goods. I hope that is not a sign of things to come when the legislation is introduced in the Houses. My amendments seek…

Hear, hear.

I move amendment No. 2: In the fourth paragraph under “acknowledges:” after “following the July 2024 International Court of Justice advisory opinion; and” to insert “the ban on trade with the illegally occupied settlements is based on the International Court of Justice and is required under international law;”.

I move amendment No. 3: After the last paragraph under “calls for:” to insert the following paragraph: “- sanctions on Israeli Government Ministers responsible for overseeing the genocide in Gaza and annexation in the West Bank.”.

I move amendment No. 4: After the last paragraph under “calls for:” to insert the following paragraph: “- sanctions on violent settlers responsible for violence against the Palestinian population in the West Bank.”

As I am sure all Senators know and as we heard from Senator McCormack, last night there was once again a breach of international law while the Global Sumud Flotilla, a peaceful humanitarian mission sailing in international waters, was attacked by drones. These boats are a threat to absolutely no one. They carry baby formula, water and the most basic forms of aid. The people on board represent hope and huge amounts of courage. Our own colleague, Senator Andrews, is on board as well as 21 other Irish citizens. They f…

The revised NDP could and should have been a turning point and a moment to finally reset our approach to housing and infrastructure delivery in Ireland. Unfortunately, I see very little ambition or vision in the revised document. One of the biggest infrastructure challenges we have in Ireland is housing. We have over 16,000 people in homeless accommodation and that includes a horrible figure of 5,000 children living in emergency accommodation. It is a shameful record that we are breaking month after month. Of cours…

I will be echoing a lot of the things that have already been said. I lend my support as well to Senator Nicole Ryan's powerful contribution. Her contributions are always powerful and today's is no different. I have concerns about the Bill. A Bill on mental health in Ireland is well overdue, but this Bill is flawed in its purpose. The purpose of the Bill is to protect people and to bring us in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities but I do not think we are achieving that. I want to r…

I am here to speak about respite and care delivery. Respite is a crucial aspect of disability service provision and offers those with disabilities, elderly people and those who care for them critical and much-needed support. The role of respite service delivery within the disability policy has been labelled as a key priority for the Government and the HSE and improvements in this area in the latest programme for Government have included an action plan for disability services. However, like many other areas in our h…

I recognise there are recruitment challenges. The Minister of State might go into a bit more detail on the efforts being made. His remarks were quite general about how recruitment challenges would be addressed. The Minister of State might not be able to answer now on data and I might ask that the Department come back to me on this. Can we get a commitment for an audit of services and need? Can we start collecting data on the number of rejected applications for respite so we have a sense of how many people are on th…

I lend my support to the comments by Senator Comyn. We heard reports yesterday that 13 of the Oireachtas broadcast unit staff will be signing on the dole for the summer recess. This is appalling. They are our colleagues with whom we work every day. They are fundamental to the effectiveness of what we do. Their live streaming of the proceedings of the Seanad, Dáil and committees is not a little nice-to-have thing; it is fundamental for good democracy, accountability and transparency. It allows members of the public …

I thank the Minister for coming in. I am also supporting Senator Ryan's amendment. I know we are not speaking about the amendments together but I have a similar amendment coming in after this. The amendments that both Senator Ryan and I tabled are effectively a fall-back position on the retention of jury trials, with some modification, as recommended by the Oireachtas joint committee on justice. If the Minister insists that the Government will not be moved on the issue of jury trial removal in its entirety, then I …

Recognising that the Minister feels there are implementation challenges with amendment No. 1, perhaps he will consider amendment No. 2 when we get to that stage, which has slightly different wording, or indeed, maybe he will commit to us that he will take on the essence of our amendments and bring forward his own amendment on Report Stage. We will be readily available to discuss the intricacies of that. The Minister stated that a plaintiff has the right to the final decision on whether there is jury or not. I thoug…

I wish to raise the issue of the escalating violence against Palestinian communities in the West Bank, how these communities face escalating violence every day and how that has intensified dramatically over the last 21 months under the cover of war but, in reality, stems from a long-standing and deliberate campaign of displacement. Just a few weeks ago, I had the privilege of meeting two extraordinary individuals, Nassar from a village in the south Hebron hills and a courageous Israeli human rights defender from an…

On Palestine and the West Bank.

Last week's announcement of a commission of investigation into historical abuse is welcome, but it is not enough. The scope of the inquiry is too narrow and by design it risks repeating the mistakes of the past. Sexual abuse is one part, a truly devastating part, of a much wider, darker history in our State. It is a history that includes physical violence, emotional cruelty, forced family separation and the selling of Irish children into adoption overseas. This all happened with the knowledge of the State, and ofte…

The Minister of State is asking to us support a Bill that erodes basic human dignity and environmental protections and basically gives carte blanche to developers to hide the fact that his Government is a serial failure when it comes to housing. We are asked to support a Bill that will lower housing standards at a time people are struggling to find homes that support basic well-being. He did not like the critique of the Bill last Thursday and suggested we have no solutions. The Social Democrats have a fully costed,…

On amendment No. 1 to amendment No. 13., I am going to double-check this and let the Minister of State know later, but this might have been slightly reformatted from my original submission. Maybe it was something to do with the renumbering but anyway, I will speak to the essence of the amendment. The purpose of this amendment is to limit the potentially negative effect of the specified overriding powers in the 2024 Act that it refers to, which could otherwise be used to negatively impact an existing public right of…

If it is better for the Minister of State, maybe I should speak to all the amendments as opposed to-----