Daniel Tatlow-Devally has been locked up for 23 hours a day in a German prison for 13 months, having taken part in a protest, in which no human being was hurt, against an arms manufacturer providing weapons to Israel to commit its crimes. His family, myself and a cross-party delegation who went over in July to witness the trial believe he is not getting a fair trial and we have repeatedly asked the Minister to send observers to that trial. Despite conveying the impression she is doing that, in actuality she has not…

In recent correspondence about this case, the Minister wrote that her Department was satisfied that Daniel was being treated equally before the law compared with any German citizen in his situation. I went to the court in Stammheim. It is reserved for terrorists and organised criminals. Daniel is neither and nobody is suggesting he is, so why is he in that court? No other German citizen in that situation would be in that court for what he is accused of. In the court next door, there were people from a far-right gro…

For a start, the Minister should just send observers. Frankly, I would like her to go further. The defendants are kept in glass cages. When we were there, security people were blocking us from just seeing through the glass. They cannot communicate properly with their legal team during the trial. They have to depend on interpretation, which means they cannot hear the actual proceedings. They are being treated as if they are terrorists when they are clearly not. The Oireachtas Members and MEPs had pens and paper phys…

I thank Deputy Hearne for bringing forward this Bill, which we are very happy to support. It will be interesting to see because the indications are that the Government is not going to support it. Deputy Ó Broin had similar Bills in the previous Dáil. I had a Bill on the right to housing in 2021 that amazingly passed. I think that was a mistake - the Government forgot to call a vote, so we got the right to housing referendum Bill passed. Of course, nothing was done about it and the housing situation has continued to…

I thank the Social Democrats for bringing forward this motion and we are happy to support it. I have to be honest and say we would go a little bit further with our windfall tax. We think 50% of the profits of these companies should be taxed and this could raise €1.1 billion, which would go a hell of a long way, along with a levy on the data centres to make them pay the same electricity prices ordinary householders. In total this could raise about €2.5 billion and could go a hell of a long way to stopping the energy…

Yesterday, the Taoiseach said he was not going to intervene in the Garvaghy Road-Drumcree stand-off, which is potentially set to escalate again this weekend. He dismissed suggestions that he should call on the British Government, the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and, indeed, the PSNI to stop a triumphalist sectarian Orange Order march going down the Garvaghy Road. I ask him to reconsider that non-interventionist position. I want him to ask himself what kind of mentality or ideology would lead Ora…

The scale of horror visited on the Palestinians certainly is of a different order. I do not have time to go into the history but saying there is no connection means the Taoiseach needs to look back at the history. After subjugating people in Ireland, the leaders of the Black and Tans and the Auxiliaries were sent straight to Palestine. In 1936, the Governor General of Jerusalem, when asked why he was backing Zionism, said it was because he wanted to create "a little loyal Jewish Ulster" in the Middle East. The Brit…

I am just asking a question.

Do I need to move all of the amendments?

I move amendment No.1: In page 5, between lines 32 and 33, to insert the following: “(3) A consultancy grant shall not be made for the engagement of consultants to provide advice or studies in respect of any activity of military relevance.” There are a series of amendments from myself and Deputy Gibney in this area. On the Second Stage debate, the Minister said that this Bill has no implications for our neutrality, but it has serious implications for our neutrality. My understanding of our neutrality is that we do …

The Minister of State will have a more difficult time explaining the deletion of section 8. Let us take him at face value and say that these things are not connected. What, then, is the problem with our amendments? If the Government is talking about giving the IDA powers, for example, to set up DACs for purely benign purposes that have nothing to do with the arms industry or the military sector, why would it have a problem with our amendments? The Minister of State said there is no connection, so why does he not ju…

Okay. The arguments have been made. I repeat that while the relevant sections we are trying to amend here, sections 4 and 5, do not explicitly refer to the arms industry and refer to relatively benign uses, we are asking for an assurance - the next section is the reason it throws doubt on these sections, and the Minister of State's decision to move out section 8 - as it does refer to, for example, consultancy grants around technological innovation, digitalisation and so on. What we are saying is in areas like that,…

I move amendment No. 3: In page 6, between lines 26 and 27, to insert the following: “(c) not make loans to, invest monies in and sell, transfer, lease or otherwise dispose of land at its disposal to, a relevant company which engages in or promotes any activity of military relevance.”.

I move amendment No. 4: In page 6, between lines 36 and 37, to insert the following: “(c) not make loans to, invest monies in and sell, transfer, lease or otherwise dispose of land at its disposal to, a relevant company which engages in or promotes any activity of military relevance.”.

I move amendment No. 7: In page 9, to delete lines 9 to 11. This is really the key amendment and is from myself and Deputies Gibney and Lawlor. We all submitted the same amendment and it relates to our belief that the Government has not been honest with this House or with the public about the real purpose of this Bill. I want to repeat that in the pre-legislative scrutiny process there was no mention of this at all. It was brought it in on Committee Stage, after the fact, and quite honestly, it could easily have be…

We intend to call a vote on this amendment so we will make sure we leave enough time to do so. Deputy Gibney prompted this thought. When I was in occupied Palestine in late 1987, during the first intifada, some young Palestinians the same age as me brought me to their home in a refugee camp near Hebron. There was no Hamas then. It did not appear until more than a decade later. In fact, there was no armed resistance from Palestinians at all. They were just young people being beaten and shot down by a regime that tre…

It is not agreed.

Out there as well.

That is down to you.

Why did they send Yoseph Haddad there then?