Let us look at what we have and then I will say what the alternative is. Referring to the Palestinians, Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion stated in 1948, and I am roughly paraphrasing him, that the only thing for the Arabs to do was leave. That is what they then did. In 1948, as part of establishing the state, 800,000 people were ethnically cleansed. Under international law, all of those people and their descendents, of whom there are millions now, have a right to return. Israel, under any guise, has n…

Again and again, the Taoiseach has proclaimed the Government's commitment to international law. In front of the world's eyes, Israel is committing actions that fit the definitions of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide as defined in the Rome Statute. Is the Taoiseach going to do anything about that? The Government could take a case. I met the Spanish social protection minister during the week, along with other MPs and MEPs. They are referring a case under Article 14 to prosecute Benjamin Netanyahu, his…

We do not know that at all.

Will the Taoiseach take a case? Will he take a case?

I am next.

I attended the demonstration in London two weeks ago. For British political and government figures to call it thuggish is absolutely outrageous. It was an entirely peaceful demonstration and the thought that there would be efforts to deter people from protesting or even banning them is absolutely outrageous. One of the things that protesters here and in Britain on that day and at all of the protests are puzzled about is the attitude of the British Government, the Taoiseach's Government, the United States Government…

Do they have the right, through military means, to defend themselves against a siege, against occupation and against the killing of thousands of Palestinians by Israel over the past number of years?

Under international law, they do but it seems that nobody seems to want to accord them that right.

The Taoiseach referred to the Government's commitment to promote biodiversity and address the climate crisis. I would like to take the opportunity to mention the sudden, unexpected and tragic death of Andrew St. Ledger of The Woodland League in the past week. I am not sure if the Taoiseach is familiar with Andrew but he would have been involved in the environmental pillar and, most notably, was an incredibly passionate, knowledgeable campaigner on the issue of forestry, woodland and trees with a particular passion …

Where has the peace process been for the last 25 years?

I thank Deputies Connolly and Pringle for moving this motion, which we are glad to support to try, at this critical movement, to stop the deliberate, sly push by the Government to abandon our neutrality. In the short time available to me, let me make an obvious point. Let us look at the strength of language and the litany of adjectives used by Government spokespeople to describe the brutal and savage invasion of Ukraine by Putin and the immediate rush to say the Ukrainian people had the right to defend themselves a…

The Taoiseach mentioned the State apology to mothers and children who went through the mother and baby home institutions, but the fact is that approximately 24,000 people who went through those institutions as children were excluded from the redress scheme. The redress scheme is still not open for applications, which is pretty incredible given the age of many of these people. The exclusion of people on the very arbitrary grounds that they did not spend more than six months in a mother and baby home was a really sho…

I appeal to the Taoiseach again about the Government's attitude towards preventing people from ending up homeless. Obviously, I think it was an absolutely disastrous decision by the Government to lift the eviction ban. The majority of people who end up homeless do so because they are evicted through no fault of their own. With regard to the other element of why people end up homeless, I will cite an example of a mother and her child that I am dealing with at present. She is working in a supermarket and has just got…

Raz Segal is an Israeli historian who specialises in Holocaust and genocide studies. He is among many who in the past couple of weeks have described what Israel is doing to the people of Gaza as genocide. This is an Israeli historian. The Taoiseach may have seen many Jewish people in New York, Canada and across the world raising their voices over what Israel is doing to Gaza and describing it as genocide. For the descendants of those who were victims of the Holocaust and, in Raz Segal's case, people who are experts…

Does the Taoiseach believe it is time to end European Union subsidies to the apartheid State committing genocide against Palestinians?

You should not be likening those events.

I have a simple question for the Taoiseach. How many innocent Palestinian civilians - men, women and children - does Israel have to slaughter, how many war crimes does Israel have to commit, and how much death and destruction does Israel have to visit on the people of Gaza and Palestine before the Taoiseach will call for and impose sanctions on Israel, expel the Israeli ambassador from this country and call for the immediate referral of Israel to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity and war …

When will the Taoiseach move beyond words of concern, impose sanctions and expel the ambassador of this apartheid, murderous state?

First, I am horrified by every single death but, you see, the world is responsible for failing to call out the reality of the Israeli regime. It is an apartheid regime. It was set up on the basis of the ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians. It has sustained itself through the ethnic cleansing - ongoing - of Palestinians day in, day out, in East Jerusalem, across the West Bank, everywhere, everywhere there is Hamas and where there is no Hamas. I lived there at the beginning of the first Palestinian intifada in 1…

It is the two-state solution that has failed.