I welcome to the Visitors Gallery the guests of Senator Garret Ahearn from the active retirement group from Grangemockler, County Tipperary, and I believe there are some County Kilkenny people here as well. I know Senator Ahearn is delighted that they are here and he is continuing the very good family tradition of representation in the Oireachtas. You are all very welcome. Thank you for being here and I hope we will see you in Thurles in a couple of weeks’ time. Céad míle fáilte romhaibh go léir.

On behalf of the Civil Engagement Group, I send our solidarity and thanks to Academics for Palestine, who have been mobilising across several universities around the country today and on the island of Ireland, calling for universities to take a stand on the genocide in Gaza. Universities in Ireland, bar one, have been completely silent on the issue of the killing of thousands and thousands of people in Palestine over recent months. This comes after some universities did not remain neutral when it came to the war on Ukraine but then asserted neutrality when it came to what is happening to the people of Palestine.

For me, this is hiding behind the idea of academic freedom when there is a blatant and obvious destruction of a people and the breaking of international law. When educational institutions are turning a blind eye and not commenting on the very foundations on which countries are able to operate, maintain peace and protect human rights, then we are complicit in that. We cannot have the idea of free inquiry and academic freedom on the back of genocide. When so many thousands of people will never reach milestones or go to university to exercise their own academic freedom or their own pursuit of knowledge, it is not okay for universities to stay silent.

Doing nothing is doing something. Speaking specifically on Trinity College and the idea that it will remain neutral, I would say it is doing something. That is an act. It is making a decision. It is making the decision to ignore the breaking of international law and a genocide of the Palestinian people. It also puts Palestinian people in Trinity and its academic staff from Palestine in a very difficult position where they do not feel supported by their college.

I and several former Senators wrote to the provost recently. I hope that she will meet us. The letter covered a broad range. There are alumni here from Trinity and other universities. I think we all should use our reach to demand that universities take a stronger stance. I and former Senators David Norris, Shane Ross and Carmencita Hederman, as well as former Senator Ivana Bacik, who is now a Deputy, wrote to Trinity. Thus far, we have had no engagement beyond recognition that we wrote to it. We hope Trinity will take a stronger stance soon. It shows how the interest and care for the Palestinian people spans across all generations in Ireland, from me back to Carmencita Hederman, who was in Trinity and the Seanad long before I came along. Again, I send my solidarity to the academics mobilising across the country today.