I warmly welcome the Government's decision to recognise the state of Palestine. The Social Democrats have long called for the Government to match its strong words on the carnage in Gaza with action, and this is a powerful move which sends a commanding message. That message is one of hope, peace, justice and freedom for an imprisoned Palestinian people being massacred by a brutal occupier. I also pay tribute to the many tens of thousands of Irish people who have fought for the Government to take this step every weekend in every corner of the country. In cities, towns, villages and college campuses, people have marched in support of the Palestinian people and demanded an end to the ongoing genocide. The Irish people's solidarity with the Palestinian people is unbreakable. It is long past time that this solidarity was formally acknowledged by our Government with recognition of the state of Palestine. My only wish is that it happened sooner.

It is now eight months into this conflict, with nearly 130,000 Palestinians having been killed, maimed or gone missing, presumed dead, under mountains of rubble. The scale of death and devastation is truly horrifying. That so much of the western world has turned a blind eye to this carnage is shameful and shocking. These same countries will criticise Ireland, Spain and Norway for the action they have taken today. Their hollow criticisms have no credibility. Any country which provides weapons being used to slaughter 15,000 children has abandoned not only the rule of law but any shred of moral authority.

The Israeli ambassador has been recalled to Israel. All I can say to that is "Good". Her presence at our Famine commemoration at the weekend, while Israel uses starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza, was grotesque. Ireland should not be facilitating apologists for genocide.

After many months of inaction, international institutions are finally beginning to act. Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. The UN Security Council has issued a resolution calling for a ceasefire and the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Hamas leaders and the Israeli Prime Minister and defence minister. Here in Ireland, we must continue to increase the pressure on Israel to end this war.

I commend the Government on recognising the state of Palestine. Will the Government now take the next step and enact the occupied territories Bill and the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill and commit to enforcing any International Criminal Court warrants against the leadership of Israel and Hamas?

I thank Deputy Cairns for her contribution. I acknowledge her long-standing support and that of her party for the recognition of the state of Palestine. I am proud to be Taoiseach in a country where there has been, for a significant period, a political consensus about the importance of this. We have division in this House on many occasions, which is right and proper in a Parliament and Dáil, but there are rare moments where we can be unified in speaking with one voice for the people of this country, who wanted us to recognise the state of Palestine. They do not do that naively or, as some of our critics say today, to virtue signal. They do it because they passionately believe in a two-state solution and they believe, forgetting governments and political figures for a moment, that the people of Israel and Palestine have a right to live side by side in two states in peace and security. If you believe in a two-state solution, it is important that you recognise the existence of two states.

Deputy Cairns said she wished it happened sooner. I can understand why she would say that. It was always our wish and, I believe, the wish of other countries that have recognised Palestine today, to move as part of a peace process, but sadly we are at a time where a just and comprehensive peace settlement seems further away than ever, and we cannot wait forever to recognise the state of Palestine. I am pleased we managed to move in lockstep with other countries, with Norway and Spain. The three countries have powerful historical track records in the Middle East and wanting to see peace and a two-state solution. I expect other countries to follow in the coming weeks. The Deputy will have heard a number of other countries in recent weeks indicate their wish to follow. I am respectful of the fact that everyone has their own national process.

Regarding the International Criminal Court, Ireland respects the work of the court. I am conscious that the prosecutor has sought a certain position and now I believe the judges of the criminal court need to make a decision on that. I do not wish to cut across that. Ireland will always abide by the rules of the International Criminal Court, as I would expect to be the case.

We debate and discuss the occupied territories Bill regularly. There is clear legal advice to the Government on this. That legal advice, in short, is that trade agreements are a European competence. I say honestly here that I am continuing to push at a European level, as my predecessor did and as the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, does, for the review of the association agreement, because it has human rights clauses in it. The human rights clauses were not put in it to have nice flowery language, to pad it out or to make it longer. They are real and meaningful words. I am frustrated that we have not yet been successful in persuading people of the merits of the need for that review. We continue that work.

Government representatives have been telling us since 2020 that the occupied territories Bill is contrary to EU law. The Taoiseach refused to clarify a really important point. Has the Government sought updated legal advice to reflect the fact we are now witnessing a genocide unfold before our eyes? That can and should change the legal advice and allow the Government to enact this important Bill. Israel should not be entitled to slaughter with impunity and maintain normal trade and diplomatic relations. Things have changed. We should also be doing everything we can at EU level to stop this carnage. The Taoiseach mentioned what he is doing at EU level. The EU's inaction in the face of these horrors inflicted on the people of Gaza is shameful. Israel's cheerleaders in the EU, like outgoing Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, have created a permanent stain on the EU's reputation. It is important to people to know if the Taoiseach will clarify if he has sought updated legal advice and if he can confirm that Fine Gael MEPs will support another term for Ursula von der Leyen as President of the European Commission.

I have got recent legal advice.

I am happy to share with the Deputy the date of the most recent legal advice. I do not have it to hand. We have engaged on this in good faith.

I believe that, at a European level, we had a significant breakthrough at the last European Council meeting in April - the first one I was honoured to attend - where the unanimous conclusion was a call for an immediate ceasefire. That had not been the unanimous position. The Minister of State, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, and I were in Brussels for that. The conclusion includes the view of the President of the European Commission, President von der Leyen. We want to see an immediate ceasefire, an immediate cessation of violence. We want to see an immediate release of all the hostages. We want to see unimpeded access to humanitarian aid. However, at this point, I think that we in Europe and other parts of the world have to ask ourselves a question: if we want to see all of these things, what must we do to create the environment to bring them about and what levers are at our disposal? That is why I continue to pursue, on behalf of this country, the need for a review of the association agreement on the basis of its human rights clauses. Trade agreements are decided at a European level, and I believe that review is the most appropriate way to take the matter forward.

Critics of our country will seek to misrepresent all of our views on this. It is important to say on the floor of this House that we deplore Hamas, that we see it as a terrorist organisation, and that we can differentiate between a terrorist organisation and the people of a country. This country can do that better than most because we know what it is like to live in a country where a terrorist organisation tries to hijack our national identity.

Hear, hear.