Another week has gone by, another week of death and destruction in the Gaza Strip. Countless thousands of lives have been lost in the seven days since we last addressed this issue. The footage on television on a nightly basis, of the dead bodies of infants and newborns unable to survive without electricity, heat and medical intervention is something one would not have expected from any modern democracy with any semblance of decency. One would expect that children who have never committed any wrongdoing against anyone would be protected.

It is an appalling situation there. We can blame Hamas all we want but it is not appropriate to collectively punish the Palestinian people for having Hamas as their leadership or as their government. Many people from Gaza had no input whatsoever in that decision. If there was a free and fair election in Gaza now, I suspect that Hamas would have no place. There is equal revulsion for the activities of Hamas among most of the Palestinian people. Unfortunately, Israel has failed to accept that situation. The only way this can be described now is as collective punishment of the Palestinian people because Hamas happens to be the leader of the administration. We would expect more from a modern democracy, one that prides itself in upholding international standards. Israel cannot be allowed to continue with this campaign of collective punishment.

There is no point in trying to make excuses for Hamas. We know it is a terrorist organisation with an appalling vision and view of the world. We know it is a disgusting group of people in every respect, what they stand for, what they believe in, and the actions they carry out. However, it is not good enough to juxtapose Israel with Hamas. It is not acceptable and we should expect more from Israel. The world will have to speak in much stronger terms and make Israel feel that this collective punishment of the Palestinian people is unacceptable and must be paused without delay.

I ask that a debate be organised in the House about public service broadcasting. Today sees the proposed publication of the RTÉ plan for the future. I understand staff are being apprised of it over the course of the day. It seems fairly draconian. We are hearing of a potential 400 job losses, a much reduced organisation. This should be debated here in a careful and controlled way.

I join the Cathaoirleach in paying tribute to a former colleague, Seanadóir and Deputy, Mr. Louis J. Belton. I extend my sympathy to his partner Anita, sister Maureen, neighbours and friends. We will have an opportunity at another time to give more fulsome tributes but, on behalf of the Fine Gael group, I would like to be associated with the Cathaoirleach's comments today.

I acknowledge the great work of Galway County Council and first responders over the past number of days and at the weekend following the horrific flooding that took place in Galway city, Clarinbridge, Oranmore and other areas along the coast. An unprecedented tidal surge took place and, in some cases, the storm was in and gone again in the space of an hour and 15 minutes. There was a severe impact on businesses, particularly in Clarinbridge and Galway city. Unfortunately, in the case of the city, it is not the first time and dare I say, it will not be the last because of the timescales for the delivery of major flood works. These timescales are a bone of contention, including with the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, and perhaps we could get him into the House to discuss flood defence schemes again.

I welcome the work of the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, and the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, on humanitarian aid for businesses that are uninsured and that suffered severe impacts. That was absolutely necessary and I welcome the speed with which that was done. I also acknowledge the work of all local councillors, including Councillor Eddie Hoare, the mayor of Galway city and Councillor Liam Carroll, Cathaoirleach of the council and Councillor Martina Kinane, who was on ground in Clarinbridge. It was a hugely difficult night, morning and day and it will remain so for weeks to come for business owners who were impacted. This calls into question the timescale of the delivery of some projects. Some of these incidents are flukes and cannot be predicted but there are schemes planned for Galway city that are going to take a decade to complete, according to what I was told the last time I raised this as a Commencement matter last year. That is the reality because of issues such as public consultation, design, applying for planning permission, possible legal challenges and court cases, the appointment of contractors, construction and commissioning. That is the timescale for major works. There are good programmes in place for minor works and I certainly hope that we can look at building coastal defence works in areas along the coast in Oranmore, where there was a breach of the sea wall. That could include some rock armour as well as other initiatives that might be able to protect other areas in Clarinbridge and elsewhere.

Again, I commend all of those involved in assisting with the Government response, including the local authority, the fire brigade, and first responders, in what was a difficult few days.

For most of us growing up, watching the Artane boy's band march in Croke Park on All-Ireland final day was something of great joy. However, for a number of people the Artane Boy's Band, its title, uniform, and everything about it conjures up nothing but memories of the abuse and butchery that took place in the Artane Industrial School. Councillor Mannix Flynn has managed to get a motion passed by Dublin City Council calling on the band to change its name and uniform and the House should support that call. The band has changed drastically from the one that existed back then but the uniform and the name are there to haunt those who suffered in that institution. It is really important that we would support Councillor Flynn and Dublin City Council.

The second issue I wish to raise is the appointment of the head of intelligence in An Garda Síochána. I am delighted that the Leader has taken exactly the same approach to this issue as I have taken. It is outrageous to consider a foreigner being appointed to this position. From what I understand, no current member of An Garda Síochána has applied for the position of head of intelligence in Ireland. We are unique in this county in that our police and our intelligence services are both under the same organisation, An Garda Síochána. We really have to stop the process until Irish citizens can apply for that position, something which is in the hands of the Government and the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform with respect to pensions.

It is unthinkable that in any democracy, the intelligence of the State would be handed over to a non-citizen. A suggestion was made here that an Irish person headed up MI5. That is incorrect. A person of Irish origin who was a British subject headed up MI5. That is a vastly different thing. This is not something trivial. This is handing over the keys of the intelligence of the State to a foreigner who may or may not have access to other intelligence services around the world. That is unacceptable in any democracy. I ask the Acting Leader to make contact with the Taoiseach and with the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, and stop this farce. This just cannot go ahead. We are the laughing stock of the world that we would even consider such a thing to happen today. I was accused of racism and I hope that those who accused me will apologise to me on the floor of this House, because it was not a racist comment. It was a perfectly natural thing to speak about. Nationhood versus racism are two very different things.

I want to bring up two issues that come up all too regularly in this Chamber, unfortunately, namely, the health service and housing. I will start with the health service and the drastic news of a further extended recruitment freeze across our major hospitals. We are already in crisis. I met workers from University Hospital Limerick a couple of weeks back and they told me they fully expect the hospital to effectively turn into a nursing home through the winter because of the freeze on home helps and the fact there are no available paths out of the hospital for many patients at the moment. On top of this, I also should mention that the staff turnover rate at University Hospital Limerick is 21%. Right now, when one in five staff are leaving, they cannot be replaced. They are already understaffed. We are already short 800 doctors in the service across the Twenty-six Counties. This is a disastrous decision and the latest sign of the complete failure on the part of the Minister for Health. A decision to underfund the health service is not just morally wrong, it is absolutely critical in terms of saving lives. To find your Government in a position where this is happening after three and a half years, I do not blame Mr. Bernard Gloster at all, I blame the Government for taking the deliberate decision to underfund the health service. The workers I spoke to at the University Hospital Limerick before this announcement last Friday were already at their wits' end in terms of understaffing and the challenges of getting new staff in. The message this sends to the nurses and doctors overseas is effectively that there is no point in trying to come back here, as there is a freeze on now. It makes no sense on so many levels and we need an urgent debate on the issue.

The second issue is housing. I will inform the House that the cost of rents in Limerick went up by 16% in one 12-month period. Those are the latest figures from Daft.ie. It is a consistent record of failure again by this Government. Sinn Féin has consistently called for a ban on rent increases and Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have consistently refused to take that on board. We now have a position where it costs €1,800 for a three-bedroom house in Limerick. What working families can afford that? It makes life impossible for them to both afford rent and actually save any money towards buying a house of their own. It is not as if we have not been saying this for years; we have. Yet the Government has consistently felt that, no, it cannot interfere with the market and will leave it be and consistently, year after year and month after month, the situation has got worse. Now, we have young people not being able to leave their parents' houses and young people making decisions to emigrate because of the complete failure and breakdown of housing across our State. That is a 16% increase in one year and the latest abject figures of failure, on top of the horrendous increase in homelessness figures, which has been a feature of this Government from the very start. Again, I call for an urgent debate.

We are reaching a turning point in the bombardment of Gaza. This week we learned that two of the main hospitals have ceased operations because there is no fuel and because they are damaged beyond repair. In Al-Shifa hospital, there are newborns who are relying on life support and incubators that have been turned off. Three have died and babies are being left on the floor without oxygen and are just simply being kept warm. According to reports in the past six hours, trapped Palestinian people are digging mass graves inside Al-Shifa hospital to bury the bodies of those people who have been killed and murdered by the Israeli bombardment.

Some 2.3 million people, half of whom are children, are trapped in Gaza and the most common age among those who have died is just five. Those five-year-olds are not members of Hamas. Neither are newborn babies or civilians. This collective punishment is disproportionate to the attack on 7 October and there is no justification for it. It is a war crime. It is not self-defence but represents massive breaches of international humanitarian law, disproportionate attacks and the murder of powerless children, including newborn babies. This ethnic cleansing is public and well documented.

The Irish Government's response has been excellent, from the responses of the Taoiseach and the Minister for Foreign Affairs to that of the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science just now in the Dáil. However, we need to be much stronger in trying to get the EU and our EU neighbours to call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. We cannot stand aside on the international stage as we see so many children killed. It is a scar on humanity that this war is being allowed to continue. We are very supportive of the idea of introducing sanctions on Israel because it is the only thing the international community can do to stop the brutal murder of children in the Gaza Strip.