I recognise the work the Government has done in support for UNRWA and the International Court of Justice and in recognising the State of Palestine, which it did on this day one year ago. There is, however, much more that needs to be done. After the last 12 months, it is unclear how much longer the State of Palestine will actually exist on the map. An entire people, its culture and place are being methodically and systematically erased by Israel. Israel's genocidal campaign of death and devastation has continued for nearly two years with barely a pause and without any sanction. The daily horrors we are witnessing are utterly horrific. People in Gaza cannot feed their families or treat their injured. All the while, a few kilometres away, thousands of trucks laden with aid are refused entry at the border.

Dr. Ali Al-Najjar works in Sligo. On Friday morning, nine of his nieces and nephews were killed by Israel. An air strike on the home of his sister, a doctor in Gaza, killed her children while she was working on an emergency ward. Her youngest children were still in pyjamas.

What Israel is doing in Gaza is not just depraved and immoral, it is inhumane, barbaric and illegal. Every time we think we have seen the worst of what Israel can do in terms of cruelty and lawlessness, the situation gets even worse. More than 60,000 people are now dead, most of them women, children and the elderly. A British surgeon working in Gaza has described it as a slaughterhouse. The weapons being used in the slaughter are not just Israeli. They are being supplied by the United States and countries in Europe. Much of the weaponry is being financed by the sale of Israeli bonds. These bonds are explicitly advertised as being crucial to the war effort. Israel is running marketing campaigns imploring people to buy these bonds so they can stand with Israel. Israel Bonds president and CEO Dani Naveh has told potential investors that purchasing the bonds was the best way to help Israel support the war campaign. The sale of these bonds is being facilitated in Europe by the Central Bank of Ireland. Those are the facts. It is also a fact that the Government does not want to do anything about this. Last night, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, shamefully claimed that the Government could not act. He did so even though legal advice from Oireachtas lawyers says it can. This advice states clearly that stopping the sale of these bonds is compatible with the Irish Constitution and EU law and in accordance with international law. The Taoiseach has recognised that what is happening in Gaza is genocide. Ireland has a legal obligation under the genocide convention to do everything we can to stop genocide.

Thank you, Deputy.

This applies to all State institutions, including the Central Bank. We must act to stop this genocide. The Taoiseach must act and act now.

The Deputy's time is up.

What is he going to do to stop the sale of these bonds?

I appreciate the Deputy's acknowledgement of certain measures the Government has taken. The Government has acted, as indeed has the Opposition. The Deputy made a very fair point about the State of Palestine today and the question of how one reconstructs a pathway to a two-state solution in the context of the appalling war and genocide being waged by Israel. I am very conscious of the particular family the Deputy mentioned. That case is illustrative of the absolute immorality of this war being waged by the Israeli Government. That nine children in one family could be slaughtered in the manner in which they were slaughtered is beyond any human comprehension.

I have met with groups from Palestine, both Jewish and Palestinian, who work together in the pursuit of peace and who are looking at a one-state approach now. They do not like using the term "one state" but this is in the context of the destruction that has happened, the settlement expansion in the West Bank and the utter destruction of Gaza. Those voices are, however, very lone voices and find it difficult to get critical mass in Israel for pursuing that and trying to see through this horror and destruction.

I believe the most effective way we can bring an end to this - it is challenging because of the history and because of member states' positioning on it - would be if the EU-Israel association agreement could be suspended. That would be a powerful message to Israel by the European Union. While the European Union has been the biggest donor to Palestine, its performance in respect of Palestine as a cohesive body has been shocking.

From the very beginning, Ireland was the first country, with Spain, to say there should be a ceasefire, a release of all hostages and that Hamas had culpability in what it did, and to call for an immediate aid surge. It is hard to comprehend that when we first sought an immediate ceasefire we were lone voices in the European Council. Quite a lot of member states instinctively supported the Israeli position because of history. Perhaps Deputies heard the German Chancellor speak yesterday. He prefaced his remark that he did not understand what the Israeli Government was at by saying a German government has to be particularly careful in how it speaks about Israel. That was illustrative of the history and a sense among some member states that have given Israel a free run essentially in terms of what it is doing.

What about the war bonds?

It is at that level-----

The Taoiseach's time is up.

-----and at the level of the United States Government that the real leverage can happen to get Israel to stop.

I do not take away from anything the Taoiseach just said but I asked him about the sale of bonds being facilitated by the Central Bank of Ireland. It is very clear that these bonds are being used to fund the genocide. The Taoiseach has recognised that genocide is taking place and he has an obligation under the Genocide Convention to do everything he can to stop that genocide. The fact is that the genocide is being financed, in part, by bonds being authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland. Clearly, that has to stop now. The Taoiseach and Government can tell the Central Bank to stop facilitating and authorising those bonds.

Hear, hear.

Will the Taoiseach do that? Will he answer that question? I am not taking from anything else he is saying or doing but in relation to bonds and the financing of this genocide, will the Taoiseach do everything he can to stop it?

On the bond issue, the Central Bank of Ireland is part of the European Central Bank. It is a constituent member of the European Central Bank. We all know that.

It acts unilaterally.

No, it does not act unilaterally on fundamental matters.

Of course it does.

That is the reality of Ireland joining the European Central Bank. The Central Bank is independent of the Government, by the way. That is a fundamental point of central banks. Politicians and other political leaders rail against central banks. That is another inconvenient truth-----

The Taoiseach could ask the Central Bank to comply with an instruction on this.

Deputy, please.

It does not sell.

It authorises sales.

Yes. It could stop the sale-----

It is a very narrow area in terms of the prospectuses and whether that would-----

What about the sale-----

There are limits. If all of us want to be honest about this - I want to get the right phrase here - we are really on very narrow ground here.

No, we are not.

We are, really. This is not as proclaimed. The Central Bank is not facilitating anything-----

The Government can stop it.

-----or approving bonds or anything like that.