Cabinet Committees Dail Éireann — 2026-09-29 ============================================================ Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central To Deputy Paul Murphy I would say that neither I nor the Government wants any applause. We just want balance and an acknowledgement that we have been the leading government in Europe, along with Spain, in supporting a Palestinian right to self-determination and in opposing the Israeli genocide in Gaza and what is amounting to ethnic cleansing in the West Bank. On the humanitarian side, we have been strongly supportive. We have provided over €134 million in support for the people of Palestine since January 2023. That includes new funding of €42 million for the Palestinian people for 2026, of which more than €31 million has been paid to date. Either Deputy Murphy or Deputy Boyd Barrett said our words have not been backed up by any action. That is just untrue. The Deputies cannot get away with saying stuff like that. We have ensured there is continuing financial support to the Palestinian Authority. We have allocated approximately €78 million to UNRWA since 2023, of which €20 million was provided in 2026. We intervened in South Africa's International Court of Justice case against Israel under the Genocide Convention. We made a submission to the International Court of Justice on the legal consequences of Israel's actions in the occupied Palestinian territories. We subsequently co-sponsored a resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly on 18 September 2024, which seeks to implement the court's advisory opinion. We have recognised Palestine as a sovereign independent state. Since 2024, there have been medical evacuations from Palestine of sick children, along with their family members, for treatment here, with plans ongoing for further missions. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has supported over 400 people to leave Gaza and travel to Ireland since the crisis began. We have led from the front on this issue. It is just nonsense to say we have only made statements and have taken no action. We have done more than that. We also signed into law the Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Act. We were the first European Union country to announce measures prohibiting trade with Israeli settlements. We led the way on that issue, followed closely by Spain, and now other countries are pursuing it. I welcome the statements that have been made by the UK, France and Canada that they are also acting on the issue of trade with Israeli settlements. There has been a reset in respect of the UK. I welcome that and have spoken to Prime Minister Burnham about it. We continue to push for a ban on trade, including services, at EU level, where it would be far more effective. The fundamental issue remains how to change the Israeli Government from pursuing the policies and militarisation campaign it is pursuing. That is the fundamental question. Within Europe, there has been division. Many member states, for historical reasons, have been very slow to hold Israel to account and have been very naive in accepting Israeli guarantees in respect of this all along the way. Deputy Ó Cearúil asked about the suspension of the EU-Israel trade agreement. We are not yet in a position where we can get agreement on that. The High Representative has been pushing it at the Foreign Affairs Council. I have raised it at the European Council. Some member states are still very much against that. Deputy McGuinness asked specifically about access for mobile maternity units to Gaza. When I was Minister for Foreign Affairs, I went to Rafah and witnessed at first hand the enormous volume of aid that was on the wrong side of Rafah, that is, it was not allowed in there. I was told last week that pencil kits were allowed in for little children. They were not allowed in before that because they included a tiny scissors, with nonsense spoken about them possibly being used as weapons. There is an incredibly malign and vicious approach from the Israeli authorities in respect of allowing aid into Gaza. I saw a mobile tent with coolers and so on that would have facilitated transport of vaccines and other medicine into Gaza. It was refused. There was so much stuff refused. Countries all over the world had made donations of medical equipment, including scanners and everything else. All of it was refused. It is appalling. That is what I said at the UN and I meant it. It is absolutely beyond human comprehension that any state would behave like this. I have spoken to President Trump about getting that aid into Gaza. I will send a specific message regarding the mobile maternity clinics. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan spoke about innovative medicines and joint clinical assessments across the EU. That is welcome. Common access is still some distance away but it is the best way to go and we will be pursuing it with the Commission. Historically, health systems have been very reluctant to have greater European harmonisation. Public health is probably the one area where we have had some success because of the Covid-19 experience, including the vaccines and all of that. The more we have a common approach in Europe, the better it will be all around for EU citizens. That is what a one-market approach means, by the way, and there should be a one-market approach in health and medicine as well. We now have common approval of medicines but, as the Deputy said, they go into the 27 individual member state approval processes. I will talk to the Minister for Health to work out how best we can pursue that at European Union level. On Deputy Coppinger's question, my understanding is that our ambassador and officials from the consulate and the embassy have been at the trial to which she referred. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-29/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:59+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-09-29