Mick Barry
Question:12. Deputy Mick Barry asked the Taoiseach to report on the work of the parliamentary liaison unit in his Department. [52325/23]
View answerWednesday, 6 December 2023
Questions (12, 13, 14)
Richard Boyd Barrett
Question:13. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach to report on the work of the parliamentary liaison unit in his Department. [53907/23]
View answer
Paul Murphy
Question:14. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach to report on the work of the parliamentary liaison unit in his Department. [53910/23]
View answerOral answers (11 contributions)
Tógfaidh mé Ceisteanna Uimh. 12 go 14, go huile, le chéile.
The parliamentary liaison unit in the Department of the Taoiseach assists the Government in its relationship with the Oireachtas. It works with the Office of the Government Chief Whip on issues that arise at the Business Committee and the Committee on Standing Orders and Dáil Reform, including Dáil reform proposals and amendments to Standing Orders. The unit helps the Office of the Government Chief Whip in the implementation of the Government’s legislation programme. It also assists the office of the leader of the Green Party in work relating to Cabinet, Cabinet committees and oversight of the programme for Government. The parliamentary liaison unit provides detailed information on upcoming matters in the Dáil and Seanad, highlights any new Oireachtas reform issues and provides assistance in establishing the new processes arising from Dáil reform. The unit is staffed as follows: one principal officer; one administrative officer; one higher executive officer; and there is one vacancy for the position of clerical officer. There are four positions in total, with one vacancy.
Yesterday, the Taoiseach took umbrage when I said I thought he was washing his hands on the issue of the genocide in Gaza. To be clear, the Government has made strong criticisms of the Israeli Government and it voted the right way at the United Nations but Israel has ignored that United Nations vote so more must now be done. However, the Government is not doing more. Action must be taken but the Government is not taking it.
The Taoiseach said yesterday that even the US could not do anything but that is not true. If the United States threatened to cut off all funding for Israel, that war could end quickly. The Taoiseach said there is nothing the Irish Government could do that would change Israel's mind overnight. That is obviously true but if you expel the ambassador tonight, every government in the EU would come under pressure tomorrow from the protest movements and public opinion in their countries to follow the Irish example. A raft of expulsions would constitute real pressure on Israel. It is a genocide. I repeat that the Government is not doing enough and must do more.
Following on from that point, the Israeli massacre in Gaza continues. Hundreds of people are being killed every day. More than 20,000 have been killed, 70% of whom were women and children. The Taoiseach has indicated that there is nothing really that he can do about it except criticise it. I suggest that what he could do is read, if he has not done so, the reports produced before 7 October by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the UN special rapporteur on the Middle East and the UN Human Rights Council. I could go on. These reports name Israel as a regime guilty of systematic apartheid and crimes against humanity and calls for sanctions.
Here is where this links to the parliamentary liaison unit. Hewlett Packard is a company that is deeply implicated in providing the Israeli military and police with the technology to maintain the illegal settlements and the databases they use for the system of racial segregation, which is the apartheid system. It is also deeply implicated in the 16-year long siege of Gaza. I suggest that the Taoiseach reads those reports, which call for sanctions on Israel, and that we cease our contract with Hewlett Packard for as long as it is implicated in crimes against humanity and apartheid in Israel.
What is happening in Gaza has been described as "a macabre game of Battleship". There are these tiny squares of territory where Israel says it will bomb a square, the inhabitants have to leave and if they do not leave, they will be killed and it will not be Israel's fault. Palestinians are forced to move from one tiny square to another again and again, in what is clearly an attempt at a new Nakba, or new catastrophe, to drive the Palestinians out of Gaza.
More than 16,000 Palestinians have now been murdered, including more than 7,000 children. I saw a quote from a man who had moved from Gaza City with his family to somewhere else and then to Khan Younis. He moved three times. He asked, "Why did they eject us from our homes in Gaza if they planned to kill us here?" Therefore it is not enough to have words of criticism. We need to have action. I want to follow up on the point that Richard Boyd Barrett was making about HP. HP has a huge number of computers in the Oireachtas. It is entirely complicit in Israel's apartheid regime. Does the Taoiseach not think it is appropriate that we stop using Hewlett-Packard in this place? Does he think it is appropriate that we would fly the Palestinian flag? We have been flying the Ukrainian flag for almost two years now. We should fly the Palestinian flag over this House.
We are all witnessing the absolute savagery and depravity of the Israeli onslaught on Gaza, on civilians, women, children and men. Bear in mind that the majority of Gazans are a refugee population. They have been left in the most dire and desperate circumstances as the world watches on. Do not miss the fact that, in the West Bank also, settler violence has spiked. Israel acts with utter impunity. I have heard the Taoiseach set out many times the things that he cannot do and his concerns about going on a solo run and making Ireland an outlier. The truth is that there are things he could do that he chooses not to do. One such initiative would be a referral to the International Criminal Court. Others have taken this action. Ireland should follow suit. Simple words of condemnation are valuable and important and we should not miss that, but the Taoiseach is in a position to lead. I believe it is the desire and wish of Irish people that the Irish Government lead on this matter and not simply stand idly by and watch.
To follow up on what all the speakers have said, we have all seen the mass slaughter of the Palestinians by a particular Israeli regime that has never been held to account in any way, shape or form. I accept the difficulties there are at European level. The Taoiseach has spoken about that before. We are down to what sanctions and what we can do to hold Israel to account, even if it is in a small way, while accepting that this is not going to stop that particular regime. We have to take a first step because nobody else is. The Taoiseach spoke about a number of other European countries that are similar to us in their view. What can we do alongside them? What timeframe are we looking at to do something substantial that calls out what the Israelis are doing?
I thank Deputies. Deputy Barry said that Israel has consistently ignored UN resolutions. It has been doing that for many decades.
Since 1948.
He is correct in that regard. I did not say that the US could do nothing. I am pretty sure that is not what I said. I note that Israel is not economically dependent on the US in the way it was in the past, and certainly not in the way it was before the 1980s. It is a considerable military power in its own right but of course receives significant US help in that regard. I said yesterday that experts in the politics and history of the region have expressed the view that the only thing that will cause the Israeli Government to end this war and change its policy is a change in public opinion in Israel. We have seen that in previous wars. The terrible war in Vietnam, for example, only ended when public opinion in the US turned against it. We need to be cognisant of that in how we approach this. Saying things and making extreme statements that play into the hands of extremists in Israel does not help the cause of the Palestinian people at all. I ask Deputies to think about and reflect on that. It plays totally into their hands and is exactly what they want to see people doing, so they can misrepresent our position, which they have on more than one occasion.
I do not agree with the approach of expelling the ambassador. I have heard it contended in this House that if we were to do that, other EU countries would come under pressure and would be forced to follow suit. As someone who has actually attended European Council meetings on and off for seven years, I know that would not happen. We would be seen as an outlier and to have acted unilaterally, despite the views of colleagues. That would actually go against us and our influence. Where action has been taken to expel diplomats, for example the expulsion of Russian diplomats after the events in Wiltshire, it was done not on a unilateral but a multilateral basis.
There are three reasons I think it is useful for us to have an Israeli ambassador here in Ireland and an Irish ambassador in Israel. We still have citizens in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. I want them to be safe and represented. The mutual expulsion of ambassadors would not help them. We also have hundreds of troops in south Lebanon, in Golan, in UNIFIL and in UNDOF, on the borders of Israel. From time to time, we need to talk to Israel about matters relating to their security and sometimes their health and well-being, such as using hospitals in Israel. I would not like to cut off that contact. At some point, hopefully in the not-too-distant future, we would like to make some contribution to a future peace process in the region. Cutting off links with Israel would exclude us from that. Those are the three sensible, practical reasons we do not think it is a good idea to expel the ambassador.
On the actions that we are taking, we are doing things that are substantive. We are increasing our aid to Gaza and Palestinians in the region. That is a real, practical help. We are also using our support and voice at EU and UN level to take particular positions. We have engaged with the International Criminal Court and done the thing that is most practical to help it in its ongoing investigation, which is to provide it with additional finance. It is clear that this matter has already been referred. There is already a case open. The International Criminal Court is not asking people to send in the same case again and again. It is asking for real, practical help, which is finance for its investigation. That is exactly what we have done. It is about resources, not repetition.
I would like to say one final thing which I think is important. I have met the Prime Minister of Palestine, the King of Jordan, the President of Egypt and the Prime Minister of Lebanon. I have done all these things only in the past couple of weeks. They thank Ireland for the position and actions we have taken. They ask us to do certain things and we do them. They do not ask us to do the things that the Deputies are asking us to do, and-----
How many of them are democracies?
-----surely that says something.