What we are witnessing in Gaza at the moment is horrific with the slaughtering of innocents and the withholding of aid. The past number of months have been horrific. I acknowledge the role the Tánaiste has played. Indeed, the Taoiseach has been very much to the fore in condemning what is going on there. The Taoiseach's intervention yesterday with his counterpart in Spain, the Tánaiste's press conference today and meeting this morning, and the allocation of a further €20 million in aid to the Palestinian people are all very welcome but it appears that the Irish voice is in the minority from a European perspective in relation to what is happening in Gaza. I myself witnessed that as part of the Council of Europe debates a couple of weeks ago. We are in the minority. Europe is not standing behind the Palestinian people. As a consequence, innocent people, including innocent children, are losing their lives daily. What more can this Government do to get our partners in Europe on-side to protect innocent people and to save lives because it has gone on too long? Second, the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018, from an Irish perspective, is something that is long overdue, long-promised and in the programme for Government. When can we envisage or expect that Bill to come before the House?

First of all, it is a bit more complex than that. The European Union is divided and member states have different perspectives for historical and other reasons. Ireland has a very strong pro-Palestinian position in terms of the right of the Palestinians to their own state living in harmony with an Israeli state. We work with approximately eight like-minded countries on a number of issues. The vast majority of European Union countries now want an end to the war in some shape or form, and everybody agrees with a two-state solution across the European Union.

The difficulty I see is around issues such as UNWRA which is why this morning we announced €20 million. That is the highest amount ever given to UNWRA. Last year, we initially only allocated around €6 million, which was the norm, but because of the war we increased that towards the end of last year. There will be more demands on us in relation to the reconstruction of Gaza. It has been levelled. Children are being slaughtered, as the Deputy correctly said. We will continue to work with European partners. The first part is to get the European Commission to agree to release funding to UNWRA and then get other member states to do the same.