I listened to the Minister's opening comments. I lost track of the number of times he said the phrase "rules-based system". In talking about international protection, some of the words I did not hear in his comments, or when the Minister of State, Deputy Brophy, provided more focus in his comments, were "compassion", "trauma-informed", "gender-specific accommodation" or any of the actual compassionate, humanitarian, dignified elements of an international protection system towards which we should be striving. None o…

We have had two months away from each other and in that time, the genocide in Gaza has continued unabated. The Israeli campaign of ethnic cleansing has taken the lives of journalists and doctors and continues to take the lives of innocent Palestinian men, women and children. We have seen developments in recent days at European level. Over the summer, we have seen states take action and we need to discuss this urgently, as a House, to identify the concrete steps we can take as a State to stop this atrocity.

I thank the Minister for being here. We welcome the opportunity to make these statements and broadly welcome this new strategy that sets out a human rights-framed vision for disability action over the coming years. Of course, we have to also highlight that the waiting still goes on, particularly for the disability community. Reports, analyses and strategies including this one are very welcome, particularly as this one is framed in the prism of human rights, but let us be clear that what we need is long overdue acti…

I wish a happy Pride to everybody who is lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning or intersex and anybody who has diverse ranges of sexual identity, gender expression, gender identity and sex characteristics. I would like to focus my comments on one particular community within that, and that is the trans community. I missed the Minister of State's speech but I will look back at it. I want to focus my comments on that community for two reasons. First, it is an area I know about. I was lucky enough to …

GAA Palestine insists all of the documentation was in order and yet they were denied visas. It has since been dismissed by the Department of justice.

Any solution through the Department of justice appeal process leaves them too late. The €40,000 they paid for flights will be gone because they had to pay beforehand. We need to discuss this, and the broader issue of visas from Palestine, today.

A huge number of residents of Dundrum and nearby locations contacted me recently. They are worried about privacy, noise and disruption and they are worried about drones. After several trials around Dublin and complaints from residents going unaddressed by this Government, a new drone depot is proposed for Dundrum. Let me be clear: I do not blame a company that, in the absence of regulation, has decided to take over our skies. That is what businesses do when we leave a regulatory gap. They take advantage of it. In t…

It is not addressing privacy.

We need to regulate them.

Meanwhile, privacy and noise-----

I welcome the establishment of this commission of investigation. While I have hope for it I am concerned that while the Commission of Investigation Act 2004 does allow for human rights compliance in the establishment of tribunals, inquiries and commissions of investigation, unfortunately in the two decades since the levels of compliance make a patchwork quilt when it comes to domestic and international standards of human rights compliance. I am concerned that these terms of reference need absolutely to be criticall…

My question is on whether the Tánaiste's Department has had engagement with or diplomatic representations from US counterparts around the exclusion of services from the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018. Last week, the Taoiseach said in comments to the media that the aim of the OTB must be to pressure Israel to end the war in Gaza and not "disadvantage Ireland unduly". He made special reference to some US states that have anti-boycott legislation. Has the US been pressuring the Governmen…

The question was about the last Bill.

I am not totally clear. The Tánaiste mentioned interactions with the ambassador but perhaps he could clarify exactly the extent of the diplomatic interactions he had with the US. I am specifically asking about the previous Bill, not this one.

My concern relates to whether we are saying that the wishes of the House and the Irish people on this matter are subservient to legislation passed in, say, Alabama or New Jersey and whether we are unwilling to fulfill our obligations under international law because state-level law in another country means it might cost us something. When it comes to international trade and sanctioning of Ireland on this, we are properly protected from rebuke by EU-level reciprocity of sanctions. I must say clearly here in this Cham…

I am glad the Tánaiste clarified that. That is exactly the case. The occupied territories Bill is not designed to stop the genocide in Gaza. It would simply put pressure on Israel but its actual function, as drafted in 2018, long before the current genocide erupted 18 months ago, is to cease trade with illegal settlements on stolen land. We all know that. Whether the US or a US state likes it or not should not inhibit us in prohibiting the trade of stolen goods and services. I understand the Tánaiste taking into ac…

Is the Tánaiste's Department aware of the case of Ryan Cornelius, who is married to an Irish citizen and has been detained arbitrarily in the UAE for the past 17 years? What steps is it taking to provide consular assistance to Mrs. Cornelius and to seek Ryan's release from arbitrary detention?

I welcome that the Department will meet with Heather, her legal team and her brother-in-law, who is assisting her. When I wrote to the Minister about this matter on 13 May, I received a reply similar to what the Minister has just outlined, that is, that the responsibility for this case lies with the British consulate. Heather is an Irish citizen, as we have established. She is a victim of this injustice and is raising her children alone as a result. She has been separated from her husband, who has been arbitrarily …

Speed is of the essence because they have reached their wits' end with support from the UK. That is why Heather has turned to Ireland, essentially, for help. At the 93rd session of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in 2022, it found Ryan Cornelius to be arbitrarily detained. There were massive procedural issues with the original conviction in 2008. There are a huge number of issues to deal with. Meanwhile, Heather remains separated from her husband, raising her children alone. The legal team around her ha…

Many of us in this Chamber use sport as a form of escapism. For those 33 kids who we are talking about from the West Bank, this is a potential escape from hell, a living hell that has rained down on them for 20 months at the hands of the Israeli genocide. It gives them a sliver of hope in their darkest hour. At the last minute, the Government has shattered their dreams and tried to extinguish that hope by denying them entry to the State for a trip that has been meticulously planned. This morning and again now I hav…