Every day people in Gaza play what is called "the hunger games". After two months without a shred of food, milk, medicine or flour coming into the territory, they brave Israeli army bullets at feeding stations that have been set up, for the chance of a bag of flour, a tin of food or whatever for their starving families. We had indelible images from the Holocaust. These will be the indelible images from this holocaust against the Palestinians and history will record that this has been sanctioned and facilitated by the EU and US.

Today, we saw the Taoiseach is at the EU summit. He will be blocked in any move to take action against Israel under the trade agreement. It is backed by bigger countries. The Tánaiste has repeatedly said we must use all levers at our disposal to end this genocide. Why does he not use all the levers he has at his disposal? We cannot wait for the EU to act in concert.

The Government is introducing an occupied territories Bill, six years after it was introduced to the Dáil, just before the recess and 20 months into a genocide, but it is denuding the Bill because it does not include services. It does not have even half the power of the original Bill. Why are services not included in this Bill? The International Court of Justice, ICJ, makes no distinction between goods and services. The settlements are illegal and all trade with them should be ended. Some 75% of people in Ireland want the full occupied territories Bill to be passed. The Palestinian people need sanctions and there has been no legal advice to the contrary. Is this due to lobbying from companies like Airbnb that might be affected by this?

The occupied territories Bill only covers a fraction of our trade with Israel. According to the United Nations Comtrade, our trade with Israel is worth €3.3 billion, the second highest after the US and above China. While the genocide was in full swing last year, for example, Ireland was the largest buyer of Israeli integrated circuits, while the Tánaiste was Taoiseach, €3 billion worth of integrated circuits that are used ironically in our health system while the people of Gaza were having their health system destroyed. I will not even go into the companies that are here and benefitting and part of the genocide, but I will ask the Tánaiste to use the lever of Shannon Airport and our airspace. Shannon Airport has become in effect a logistical military hub for the US.

What a statement.

What a statement.

It has become a significant transit point for the US military since 9/11. The RTÉ news data, for example, reported 2,000 applications for exemptions, of which only 0.1% were refused. Literally millions of US troops have passed through Shannon Airport in the past 20 years.

They are not going to Gaza.

Please conclude, Deputy.

Shannon Airport is a de facto military base and the US is financing the genocide on Gaza. Will the Tánaiste pull that lever and stop the US army from using Shannon Airport?

That was quite an extraordinary attempt to suggest that the country in the European Union, which has done more for and in standing by the people of Palestine is somehow or other complicit in an illegal, despicable genocide that is taking place.

I did not say that.

You effectively did.

You are, but I did not say it.

There you go.

There you go. You said it now. The mask slips very quickly with you, Deputy.

Stick to the question on the occupied territories Bill.

The way this place works is that the Deputy asks a question and then I have the right to answer. It is a democracy, so I ask that my mandate be respected too because I would like to answer the question.

Surely to God, it does not need to be the case in everything that the Deputy is morally superior than everyone over here. Surely to God, sometimes we can actually recognise that it does not matter what our politics are or where we are on the political spectrum. We are all sickened by the genocide and we are not divided on that. Perhaps every now and then we could pull together and be clear about that. The Deputy is again using language that the sponsor of the Bill, Senator Black, the woman who actually did all the work on the legislation, does not use.

I have met Senator Black. She did a great job by the way. She is a good person who is trying to do the right thing. I said clearly to her that we would get that Bill to pre-legislative scrutiny, that we would not dilly-dally and wait for clarity on whether it was possible to include services. We will get the Bill in on goods and do the pre-legislative scrutiny. I have made it clear that, from a policy perspective, we have no issue with adding services. I want to do everything possible to make it clear we stand with the ICJ. We are the only Government in the entire European Union that has published any legislation - ever - to ban trade with the occupied Palestinian territories. We are the only one. I had a good conversation with Deputy Bacik on this and I thank her, but I have not had anyone else in the Opposition ring me about this. I would be very grateful if every member of the Opposition in a leadership position would do one thing today and that is to pick up the telephone and contact their political counterparts in the European Union and ask them where is their occupied Palestinian territories Bill and when will it be published.

Hear, hear.

Hear, hear.

Hear, hear.

I would like to know because it is by all of us coming together that we will create the momentum that Netanyahu's genocide cannot be tolerated.

What the Deputy said about Shannon Airport is an attempt to conflate a number of issues. It is an attempt to suggest somehow or other that Shannon Airport is being used to assist with the horrific activity in Gaza. There is no evidence of that at all. I ask the Deputy to clarify that is not what she is saying.

She is right about, and my Department publishes every month on our website, exactly what happens in terms of flights that land. It is quite transparent. I want to make it quite clear that there is no evidence of any flight stopping at Shannon Airport to transport any weapons or any military personnel participating in any genocidal activity in Gaza or the Middle East. I would appreciate if the Deputy would agree with me on that. She certainly has no evidence of that either.

We will pass a Bill that shows solidarity with the people of Palestine and the ICJ. What we are also going to do is what the Taoiseach is trying to do today, that is build an alliance to try to get other countries involved. The Deputy is right on this point, that we cannot wait for EU unanimity. We waited far too long and we have to move on. I am asking like-minded countries today to move with us and I would appreciate the Deputy's support on that.

The point of my contribution was that we are the second biggest trader with Israel. It is worth €3.3 billion. The occupied territories Bill is a fraction of that. It is a welcome step. The question is why the Government is not moving forward the whole occupied territories Bill that was originally proposed in the Dáil six years ago. It was unanimously or certainly overwhelmingly supported. Fianna Fáil brought it in and was cheering and whooping about it. The Government has the chance to bring in the whole Bill. There is no legal impediment to doing so that the Government has identified. Why not introduce Frances Black's full Bill? It would have been much quicker.

The word "complicity" means that you are involved in something or you know something is wrong and do not do anything about it.

Thank you for explaining it.

For 20 months, we have all known that what has been going on is wrong and very little has been done by Ireland-----

Not True.

-----to use the levers. The levers are there, but is the Government willing to pull them?

That is not true

The first lever is the occupied territories Bill. The Government needs to move it and make sure the Bill gets in before the recess. However, there are other issues such as Shannon Airport and the Bill on the Israeli war bonds, which the Tánaiste and members of Government voted down. The bar is low in the EU. There is no point in comparing yourself to them.

Thank you, Deputy Coppinger.

This is about a neutral country standing up for the people of Palestine.

The people of Palestine know we are standing up for them. Deputy Coppinger might not want to acknowledge or appreciate that. The Palestinian ambassador wrote to Sligo County Council in the past week and said

Ireland's commitment to international law and human rights will always be seen and commended by the Palestinian people. Every effort by the Government of Ireland to stop Israel's genocide and war crimes on the Palestinian people is highly valued.

The person who is in our country representing the people of Palestine wrote to Sligo County-----

You are collaborators with the Israeli regime.

What?

Withdraw that.

Hang on a second. It is hard to keep up with the Deputy.

You are seen as that by Palestinians.

I would like to use the 32 seconds available to me. It is hard to keep up with the Deputy's logic. The Palestinian ambassador has written-----

Talk to Palestinians.

-----to thank the people and Government of Ireland. Funnily enough, I attach a greater value to her view, as the representative of the people of Palestine, than I do to the Deputy's view on behalf of the people of Palestine.

Sound bites.

She represents them. That is how it works. She is their representative in this country. We made her an ambassador by recognising the State of Palestine.

On the occupied territories Bill, let me be clear. There are legal issues about services. We will tease through them and, if we can make progress on them that is what we intend to do, but we need other countries to move. If this is not about performative politics and actually about helping to save lives in Gaza, today we need to call on other EU member states to join us and bring forward their own legislation and stop waiting for EU unanimity. Let us get on with the job.