I welcome my colleagues back to the House. I am delighted that we are back in session. I look forward to the busy months ahead. I arrived back in Dublin yesterday from Oslo, Norway. I had been invited to meet parliamentarians and the Norwegian foreign affairs committee about my Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018 which, having passed fully through the House with fantastic support, is now before the Dáil for consideration. The week beforehand I was in Santiago, Chile, also meeting human rights organisations, trade unions and members of the Chilean Parliament, who showed great interest in the Bill and our work on this issue in Ireland. It is fantastic to see this interest and support around the world. Many other countries have also invited us to visit. The attention being paid to Ireland as a leader on issues of human rights and international justice is inspiring. I come back to this session more determined than ever to see this Bill pass its final stages and become law.

However, as many of my colleagues will know, one of the biggest challenges in doing so, and indeed in passing many other Bills, is the Government's use of the money message device to veto Bills that have won the support of a majority of Deputies and Senators. Senator McDowell has spoken at length about the extremely dubious legal grounds for this, as have experts in constitutional law from Trinity College Dublin and the National University of Ireland, Galway. I hope the Government is paying attention to these warnings. I have put a lot of time into this issue over the past few months as I feel it is something we badly need to address if our Parliament is to function properly. The Constitution does not hand the Executive an absolute veto over Parliament but, incredibly, that is what is coming to pass. I know the relevant committees on Dáil business and reform will be examining this issue in the near future. I offer my full support for that process. We can fix this quite easily if there is political will to do so.

I echo what Senator Black has just said. In these Houses, the provisions of Standing Orders and the Constitution regarding money messages are being blatantly abused. We look across at what is happening in the UK Supreme Court where somebody has had to intervene to prevent the Executive effectively overriding the will of the democratically elected houses of the UK Parliament yet we seem to be frozen in inaction when confronted by the same issues. I will say two things with regard to the Bill.

It has been suggested by a number of people in the Israeli Government, including Mr. Netanyahu, and a number of their keen supporters here in Ireland, who are by no means representative of the entire Jewish community in Ireland but are ardent Zionists - I will not mention any names - that somehow there was something anti-Semitic in that legislation. There was not. There was not a shred of anti-Semitism in it. The great majority of liberal, decent people of the Jewish religion in Israel, America and in other places recognise that the annexation of the West Bank is nothing to do with anti-Semitism, it has everything to do with Zionist imperialism, as it was reflected by the utterly cynical and totally wrong and dishonest behaviour of Prime Minister Netanyahu in trying to swing the last few votes out of his electorate by claiming that he was going to annex even more of the Palestinian territory in defiance of international law. We, in these Houses, have a right and a duty to protest against that. We have a right to call on our Government to stand up unequivocally for what is right and to make it very clear to those people who are still in office in Israel, despite the fact that they have lost the support of the people at the recent election, that annexation of Palestinian territory, whether it is supported in the White House or in certain quarters around the world, is against international law and that the removal of people and the use of those territories for economic gain is in breach of international law and that it should not be tolerated.

A suggestion was made yesterday in a debate in this House by Senator Norris, who became voluble on the subject, on whether the money message provision was invoked to stop printing. If one looks at yesterday's transcript, one will see he was concerned about this. The money message provision was invoked on the basis that to make regulations, to type them out and put them on a computer screen somewhere and to promulgate them would involve expenditure. That is a disgrace. It is a real mark of disgrace and dishonour on this Government, that it would think of doing that. The use of Civil Service time and a Minister's time to put a signature on a piece of paper generated within an office is no more an appropriation of the public revenues than anything, no matter how trivial, could be. The time has come for us to be honest in this House and to say the Government must stop this charade. The Government is a minority one and I fully accept there are difficulties in keeping control of public expenditure when it is in a minority position, but using the money message procedure in bad faith to frustrate the will of the Members of these Houses to protest against and to make illegal the importation into Ireland of goods manufactured in the occupied territories is a shameful act, the responsibility for which lies firmly at the feet of the Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, and the Tánaiste, Deputy Coveney. They should be ashamed of themselves.

I was alarmed by the report on climate action at the weekend and also by today's report from the EPA on premature death due to pollution, which is said to be at 1,100 and climbing, according to the latest statistics from 2016. Across the EU alone, the figure is up to 700,000 deaths per year, which is a significant amount. The problem is that we have lower levels than those specified in EU regulations, so our air quality passes the test. However, it does not pass the more strict World Health Organization test. Stations are recording mainly in rural areas but the deaths are caused by airborne pollutant particles in urban areas from diesel, coal and fossil fuels. As a result, many people are dying prematurely and there is also an impact on the health service. Going forward, we know that climate action will impact much more on public health. I would like the Leader to invite the Minister to address climate change. I am a member of the Joint Committee on Climate Action and we are addressing transport, but we are still buying diesel buses and allowing oil to be drilled offshore. I accept there is a commitment to stop that, but we must act a lot more quickly. Yesterday, I asked the Seanad Committee on Procedure and Privileges, CPP, to consider inviting Greta Thunberg to address this House. Today, she became a recipient of the alternative Nobel prize. She is leading the climate action awareness strike and is embarrassing us into doing something for her generation. We cannot leave them behind. I urge the Leader to consider putting the matter on the agenda. Yesterday, I asked the Leader to ask Greta to address these Houses.