An image popped up on my social media last night showing two boys in Rafah, their tiny bodies crushed under mountains of debris, the latest victims of Israel's atrocities in Gaza. The world will probably never know their names. We will not know how many siblings they had, what their favourite hobby was, what they wanted to be when they grew up, how scared they were for the past seven months, how many horrors they endured, how many friends and family members they watched die, how many times they and their families had been displaced before they ended up in Rafah desperately seeking safety before a missile strike on the building they were staying in ended their short lives. Those boys were just two of the more than 14,000 children who have been killed in Gaza. Nearly 35,000 people have now been killed in Gaza, the vast majority civilians.

Israel is slaughtering people in their tens of thousands and still the world sits idly by. Entirely absent from implementing any sanctions or even the threat of sanctions has been the European Union. From the outset the EU has not just acquiesced to the carnage; it has been complicit. There has yet to be a joint statement from EU leaders in which Israel's barbarism is even mildly criticised. I acknowledge and welcome that Ireland and a minority of other EU member states have been calling for action. However, it is now three months since the former Taoiseach and the Spanish Prime Minister wrote to the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, to request an urgent review of the EU-Israel trade deal. As far as we know, von der Leyen has not even bothered to reply to that letter, never mind review or suspend the deal.

The Social Democrats welcome plans to recognise the state of Palestine later this month. When will the EU live up to its professed values and act to stop a genocide? Has the European Commission ignored the Irish Government's request to review the EU-Israel trade deal? If so, what will the Government do about it? The next European Council meeting is not scheduled until the end of June. Will the Government call for an emergency European Council meeting and put sanctions against Israel firmly on the agenda? Will the Government enact the occupied territories Bill, which Fianna Fáil supported when it was in opposition?

I agree with the Deputy that the death toll and the horrors happening in Gaza are quite shocking. The death toll is now in excess of 34,000. Over 1.9 million people have been displaced and, of course, thousands of people have been badly injured as a result. On my recent visit to Rafah, UN representatives spoke about the degree of psychosocial trauma that the entire population, particularly children, have been subjected to. There are 17,000 unaccompanied minors in Gaza right now, 17,000 children without parents and so forth. They are going through enormous trauma and are being helped by other people who are also going through enormous trauma. There are 1.5 million people sheltering in Rafah and any operation there would be catastrophic.

When I visited Rafah, we saw a CT scanner which had been donated being denied access. A lot of other hospital equipment is being denied access by the Israeli authorities allegedly on the grounds of dual use. A green sleeping bag was denied access because it could be used as camouflage. A children's education pack was denied because it includes scissors. Croissants with chocolate and orange juice were considered luxury items. It is unbelievable what is being denied to Palestinian people within Gaza by the Israeli authorities given the enormity of the starvation and hunger that people are experiencing.

I am clear that the people of Gaza are being collectively punished. There is no other explanation for what is going on. Israel has obligations to facilitate full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access into and throughout the Gaza strip, in particular by road. Road is the most effective way of getting sufficient aid in. We have been clear that all restrictions on the work of UNRWA and other humanitarian groups must be immediately lifted.

The former Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, and the Spanish Prime Minister wrote to the European Commission about the EU-Israel association agreement. It was discussed and will be discussed again at the Foreign Affairs Council but we want the Commission to do a formal review. We have already engaged with the Commission on this. If, ultimately, there are to be sanctions at EU level or if the essential element clauses of the agreement which involve human rights are invoked, in all likelihood it would need unanimity at Council level if the Commission were to recommend such action. We are under no illusion, given the composition of the European Union and the different perspectives of different EU member states on this question, that this is a challenging road. Nonetheless, we were correct in taking the first step and we will continue to pursue it.

We agree with the Tánaiste. We need action because the situation is so appalling. One of the images I saw yesterday was of a small child whose parents have been lost looking after a toddler and a baby. These are appalling situations. People are being massacred in Gaza. Children with hopes and dreams for the future are being left buried under rubble. We urgently need action on this as quickly as possible. Will the Tánaiste call for an emergency meeting of the European Council? Will the Irish Government call for this and look for sanctions against Israel to be on the agenda? Will he do that urgently?

Regarding the occupied territories Bill which the Tánaiste supported when in opposition, will the Government now support the enactment of that Bill?

I accept what the Deputy is saying. War crimes have been committed. I am in no doubt about that. What is happening is a shocking humanitarian catastrophe. The most immediate priority is this Friday, when the UN General Assembly will consider the question of admitting Palestine to the United Nations to enjoy the rights and the full gamut of what is available as a member. That vote and the scale of the vote is important. We are supporting and co-sponsoring it with a view to ensuring as large a number of people as possible support Palestinian membership. That would give further impetus and international urgency to this and also to the question of recognition of a Palestinian state. That vote on Friday is important in that respect.

On the occupied territories Bill, the advice is clear. We have no legal jurisdiction in that it is a EU legal competency. That is the legal advice from successive Attorneys General at this stage and it seems to us that the majority of senior legal opinion is to that effect. I am open to-----

The time is up, Tánaiste.

-----further examination of that from a legal perspective but the advice has been very strong to us.

The Tánaiste is not going to call for a meeting of the European Council?

Again, the European Council meeting is in June, I think.

It is at the end of June.

We will see what can happen there. The Foreign Affairs Council meeting will be held before that. We have the meeting of the UN on Friday and we will see where we go from there.

Actions absolutely speak louder than words. I start by paying tribute to the very brave and committed students of Trinity College Dublin who, after five or six days of a sit-in, managed to get full divestment from the Israeli state from the authorities in the university. This is a very hopeful sign in the midst of what is a desperate and hopeless situation as Israel moves to its next stage of onslaught against the people of Palestine and threatens the ground invasion of Rafah. Interestingly, Joe Biden stated this morning that he will not provide any more bombs. One shipment of bombs has been refused. That is a small amount of weaponry compared with what the USA has already provided to Israel but it is progress and that is an amazing thing to see. Where did that incentive come from? Where did that impetus come from? It came from the students across America who are occupying colleges there and driving from below the absolute imperative on our rulers across the world to do something; not just to talk, but to act. The students have acted and they are being listened to.

There is an historic context to this. Students acted when the Vietnam war was at its height. Students across America, Europe and Britain occupied and took action and began the end of the Vietnam war. The same is true of apartheid in South Africa. Student action began the end of apartheid and fed into a movement that spoke to the rulers of the world and said "Do something. Act. You must act now." When will the Government act? Rather than just talking about what needs to be done and bemoaning the fact that there is terrible genocide, children are being killed and the scenes are horrific, when will it actually do something that will force the hand of the Israeli state to back off and stop the genocide? We have a legal obligation under the Genocide Convention to do something rather than just sitting on our hands and waiting to see what happens and whether the European Council meeting will be called or not. We have to act and we should now start taking a leaf from the book of students. These young people, the locked-out generation who cannot get homes, who are living in their mammy and daddy's box room, who have to emigrate when they finish their education because they cannot afford to live in this country, have been inspiring. They have been courageous and gone the whole nine yards. They are at this in America and across Europe and Britain as we speak. They are trying to tell people like the Tánaiste, who rule these democratic countries, to do something. It is not just about being cool, young and a student. It is about telling the adults who are well paid, well resourced and powerful in this world to actually take action, stop the genocide and the slaughter of children, and tell Israel that this is not acceptable and the apartheid and the occupation of Palestine must end.

First of all, I do not rule; I am elected-----

Hear, hear.

-----as is everybody else in this House. We have a parliamentary democracy in this country which I respect, and I respect the views of all citizens. I am under no illusion about the strength of feeling across the entire Irish people about what is happening within Palestine, and to Palestinians in Gaza in particular. My own party has been consistently supportive of a Palestinian right to its own state. Indeed, in our programme for Government, the three Government parties put together a commitment to recognise a state of Palestine, again co-ordinating with other member states and other countries to try to have as big an impact as possible to give momentum on the question of recognition. We have been very active. It is not just words. We have been very focused on all areas - diplomatic, legal, humanitarian and political. We have been pursuing every avenue at our disposal where we can have practical and real impact. On the humanitarian side, Ireland was one of the first, if not the first, to stand up and call for a stop to the attempts to undermine UNRWA and the pulling back of its funding. We have been effective on that front. It is acknowledged by UNRWA and by others that Ireland stood up and it was not just words; it was action.

On the legal front, we are already one of the few countries to make an oral submission to the ICJ case on the advisory opinion from the UN. The Attorney General made a substantive contribution to the court, following on from a very substantive written legal submission we made back in July 2023. I may stand corrected on that date. We were consistent on these issues even before this terrible war started. We have worked hard to secure the safe passage of many Irish citizens out of Gaza and that has been effective, with more than a hundred Irish citizens now out of Gaza. We have made it clear we will legally intervene in the International Court of Justice on the case initiated by South Africa, but that will take time. I am not saying that is all we will do but it does speak to the issue of accountability. Israel has to be held accountable through the international court system for what it has done. We have to advocate with other countries to win them over to our position. We have been effective, given where we started. Ireland would have been considered an outlier within the European Union on this question in terms of the positions we have consistently adopted but now a majority within the EU are very much in line with our position in respect of an immediate ceasefire, the release of hostages and a political process to resolve this on a more sustainable basis.

I have not denied that the Tánaiste has said a lot. He has said a lot diplomatically and legally and about humanitarian criticism on stopping the aid to UNRWA. He has said a lot. What I am asking is what he is going to do? The question of deed is at the heart of my argument. I was a young shop steward when the Dunnes Stores strike against apartheid happened. I knew Karen Gearon and Mary Manning very well. For three years, they stayed on the picket line on Henry Street and, after three years, the Government in this House brought in legislation to ban the importation of South African fruit and vegetables. However, it took three years of a struggle by ordinary, decent young workers. Now we are seeing the struggle by ordinary, decent young students to try to get people like the Tánaiste, the rulers of the world, to listen.

I call him ruler. I understand he is an elected ruler, but he has much more power than I have. If it was within my power, the Israeli ambassador would have been put out of here long ago.

The Government could do that but it is refusing to do it. I love the talk but we need action. Children are dying, as we speak, as a result of famine. Places are being bombed as we speak, and we face the potential of an absolute catastrophe in Rafah. There is that potential still, even after Joe Biden said he will refuse to send one shipment of bombs to Israel following all the stuff he has sent. The Government needs to act. Act means sanctions. Sanctions can be anything from refusing its services, ending the contract with Hewlett-Packard that we have in this House and expelling the Israeli ambassador. Take action in the way students in the United States and Trinity College have done. They have made a difference.

We have taken action. The Deputy is being very disingenuous. We have taken action long before this war and during it. We were one of the first to support the NGOs that Israel had, in our view, wrongly labelled as supporters of terrorism. We continued our support for those NGOs, which are human rights organisations, with finance. We met them. I already instanced the UNRWA situation and the wider supports we give to the Palestinian state in the areas of education and health. That is action; it is not words. It is practical action. The Deputy spoke about-----

It is not working.

No one speaks more than-----

The Government needs to do more.

The Deputy speaks a lot as well. I am not-----

The Government needs to do more.

-----just about talk. I am about practical action and the hard yards of trying to persuade people.

That is going to take a long time.

The political accommodation in South Africa involved people on all sides taking momentous steps in the context of truth commissions and everything else.

The boycott precipitated it.

Ultimately, if we want Palestinians and Israelis to live side by side in harmony, there will have to be a political resolution. That will involve-----

So while they slaughter the Palestinians, we wait for them to live in harmony?

Everybody in this House has condemned the bombardment of Gaza.

Time is up now, Tánaiste, thank you.

Everybody has to be fair. I am trying to say that, ultimately, there is no other way. It is like what happened in Northern Ireland. For 30 years, people were bombing and maiming each other. People are now living together in harmony-----

Can we conclude, please? Time is up.

-----and in peace. That ultimately has to happen in the Middle East. Otherwise, there will not be sustainable peace in the region. We have to work at that. That is hard work.

If Palestinians are still alive; if they are not expelled or dead.

If the Deputy wants to have a conversation with the Tánaiste, have it with him outside.

I do not want to have a conversation with him.

We have a set time for questions. We have to have some regard for the rules, please. I call Deputy Naughten.