Paul Murphy
Dublin South-West · People Before Profit-Solidarity · Ireland
“The Minister of State assured us we are bound by international law but then went on to talk about the fact that he wants to deploy troops outside the framework of international law. That is why the Government is getting rid of the triple lock. All the triple lock does is ensure that we only can send troops in line with international law.”
“The case for MetroLink south west is extremely strong. There are 350,000 people living between the Luas red and green lines. That is who will be served by this.”
“Hopefully the junior Minister will be able to clarify. The Minister, Deputy McEntee, said earlier to Deputy Ó Laoghaire, "The people I speak to do not like the fact that Russia has essentially removed, or will remove in the coming months, all our peacekeeping troops from UNIFIL".”
“I, too, want to ask about the senior Minister. This came up at the Dáil reform committee last week. It is very peculiar that a senior Minister is here and has answered previous questions on the triple lock today and then – no offence meant - we have the junior Minister answering these questions, which precisely prevents the continuation o…”
“Its defence is that we should not worry because the Government is only going to send them as part of an international force. I do not think anyone here thinks the Government is going to invade a country all by itself.”
“It is there in black and white in the programme for Government and the Government needs to live up to its commitment to do a new, properly independent feasibility study. I appeal to the Minister of State to ask the Minister for Transport to meet with the metro south west group which has been doing such excellent campaigning on this issue.”
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“The Government is stealing €1,400 from the pockets of disabled people. The Disability Federation of Ireland claims that this budget is a betrayal of disabled people and states that it will strip away vital supports and lead to a deepening of poverty. It points out that the past three budgets have recognised the extra cost of disability through the disability support grant, which is now gone. It is not spare cash; it is what keeps the lights on and the heating running for carers. A measly €10 is eaten up by the cost-of-living crisis, and there is no move to meet the election promise to scrap the means test for carers. On the other hand, this is a great budget for fast-food giants and major hotel chains. How much is the Government giving to them?”
“In reality, it is increasing those fees by €500. There is nothing for parents of young children in the budget. The Government parties ran in the most recent election on the promise of a cap of €200 a month on childcare fees. However, people are going to continue to be pay €200 a week in childcare fees. We hear that 2,300 new childcare places are promised at a time when 62,000 children are on childcare waiting lists. There is nothing for renters in the budget, while the Government has legislation coming which will allow rents to be hiked faster, harder and higher. Life is going to get harder for renters. Possibly the worst and most disgusting element of this austerity budget package in a time of plenty is the attack on disabled people. It is an attack that will amount to about €1,400.”
“Let us take the case of a worker. Having checked the tax tables, a worker on an average income will be slightly worse off next year just in terms of income tax. When we take into account that all the once-off cost-of-living measures that were given last year in an attempt to buy the election are all gone, for an average working couple with two kids that is over €1,000 gone. The average family with both parents working will be worse off to the tune of well over €1,000. That is at a time of plenty. Students will be worse off next year. At a time of plenty, they will pay €2,500 - an additional €500 - for a supposedly free third level education. However, the Government has the gall to try to gaslight us and students - it is getting some headlines for this - by saying it is going to reduce student fees by €500.”
“The developers are doing great. The corporate landlords are doing great. All these corporations are profiting from the crises affecting ordinary people, namely the housing crisis, the health crisis and the general cost-of-living crisis. It is ordinary people - workers, carers, disabled people, renters and young people - who are struggling. One in five children is growing up in enforced deprivation and having multiple experiences of deprivation in this State. One in three families struggle to pay their energy bills. Something like 50% of families find it hard to put enough food on the table to feed their children. Yet the Government, at a time of plenty, has decided to make their lives harder. That is not just some generality; it is based on the facts of what has been presented to us in the budget documents.”
“This is a budget of austerity at a time of plenty, which is incredible. No exaggeration, but this budget is going to make life for ordinary people harder at a time when we have a very large budget surplus and when €1.7 billion is being given to corporations in various forms of corporate welfare. If an alien had come down here at 1 o'clock today and listened to the budget speeches of the Ministers, they would have thought that this must be a country where ordinary people are doing great, where there is no cost-of-living crisis, where workers are getting on just fine and where companies must be really struggling, hence the need for a budget to help them out. Of course, that bears no relationship to reality. The reality is that we have unprecedentedly high levels of corporate profits. The corporations are doing great.”
“The answer I got was: "My Department has been engaged in the examination of this matter. This work is still ongoing at the present time." That is really a joke. Is the Government going to take seriously the issue of the overflights? It is not a question of beefing up our military. It is a question of prosecuting the companies that have it on their waybills. The Minister can prosecute the companies. The companies have admitted that they are doing this. It is clearly illegal. Why is the examination taking so long and is the Government going to act on it?”
“I will move on because a lot of the details in terms of the flotilla and the treatment have been questioned. If the flotilla participants were here, I think they would want me to ask about the broader issues because that is what they are engaged about. It is all eyes on Gaza, not just the flotilla. To pursue the question about the use of Irish airspace, the Tánaiste went on "The Late Late Show" and said he did not think Irish airspace was being used. I asked a Leaders' Question and gave him a dossier to prove that. I got a letter after that from the Minister for Transport stating that an examination was ongoing. We know that examination has been ongoing for more than a year now. I got an answer to a parliamentary question back last week. I asked when the examination commenced and when it would be completed.”
“The other thing I would say to him is that we cannot trust the Israeli state about anything. We know that on a much bigger scale. I can tell about our experience when we were brought to Ashdod. The Irish ambassador was there. All sorts of commitments were made to us. We were told we would get everything back and we would be back on a plane within 24 hours if we got off the boat now and there would be no strip searching, no mistreatment, etc. Once the ambassador was gone, all of that was gone. We were strip searched and then detained. Our books were taken away from us. We were not given anything for a week. I know there are limits to what the Irish ambassador can do in Israel but all pressure needs to be added to ensure these people are properly treated.”
“All of us need to now redouble our efforts to stop the support, arming and enabling of genocide. Saturday's national protest called by the IPSC, at 12.30 p.m. at the Garden of Remembrance, can be absolutely enormous now as people flood onto the streets. There are people outside the Dáil right now protesting. Just like the Italian workers, we need to put workers' action on the agenda. I know Irish Healthcare Workers for Palestine has called a day of workers' action on 16 October. I wish to focus in on some questions. The Tánaiste mentioned earlier about the ambassador making clear our expectation that our citizens would be treated fully in line with international law. To clarify, does the Tánaiste agree that already our citizens have not been treated in line with international law?”
“When we were in Tunis, we spoke about two key parts of our mission. One was to break the siege and open a people's humanitarian corridor to allow aid to flow. It is clear that is not going to be achieved. An obligation goes back onto states to bring aid and ensure the blockade is broken. The other aim was to highlight the complicity of Western states or their failure to act, and to bring pressure to bear on Governments around the world. That aim of the mission has been achieved. A new impetus has been given to the global movement of resistance. We saw last night huge protests breaking out spontaneously at midnight, in a whole number of countries, of people saying since they have blocked the flotilla getting through, let us block everything. Italian unions have called a general strike for tomorrow.”
“It is a terrifying experience for Israeli soldiers to board your boat. They are clearly hyped up. They have got big guns, they are pointing them at you and you are highly aware they have been told you are Hamas terrorists or whatever else. This is David and Goliath stuff. Israel is armed by the world's richest countries and has one of the richest, most armed militaries, with support from the most powerful countries in the world to inflict this genocide on ordinary people armed with nothing other than baby formula, food and medicine. It says everything about the nature of this Israeli State, the nature of this genocide and the nature of this apartheid State that they engage in military action to stop people bringing in humanitarian aid. I want to say one thing to the participants in the flotilla.”
“I was in here last night and watching the live feed like millions of people around the world. I felt that in those pictures we had the best of humanity - ordinary people - on display. I had the pleasure of spending two weeks with hundreds of them in Tunis. They are extraordinary people in many ways but ordinary people in terms of the lives they lead as nurses, civil servants, a Senator, a poet. These people are driven to do what they can and put their lives on the line to try to stop a genocide. We saw the best of humanity, combined with the worst of humanity as these Israeli soldiers boarded their boats in order to stop aid getting through to a starving population. It was very similar to the experience we had in 2011 on the flotilla I participated in. Senator Chris Andrews and many others were part of that.”
“I will take nine minutes and Deputy Healy will take three. I will start by adding our condemnation of the horrendous attack on the synagogue in Britain. We should be very clear about what we saw last night. It was an act of piracy in international waters. The Israeli special forces unit Shayetet 13 surrounded 40-something flotilla boats, sprayed a whole number of them with heavy water cannons, rammed a number of small boats and then boarded them with armed soldiers. These boats were in international waters carrying baby formula, food and medicine to a people who are being deliberately starved and having famine imposed on them by Israel. These people have been kidnapped. They have not been detained; they have been kidnapped in international waters and are being taken against their will to Ashdod, probably, which is the usual spot.”
“Does the Minister agree that there needs to be a new scheme that is open to new applicants so that those who did not apply previously can do so?”
“Again, it is unambiguously positive. It is positive for the artists who participated and for society as a whole. It provides some sort of halt or counterpressure to the drain of mass emigration of many of our most creative young people who are effectively being driven out of here by the cost-of-living crisis and are going to live in less expensive but creative cities which is sucking the energy and life out of many of our cultural scenes. Is the Minister in favour of the expansion of this scheme to include all who are eligible to participate? This would mean increasing the funding, perhaps even quadrupling it. Another 6,000 artists were eligible for the scheme, having met the criteria, but they lost out on the lottery. We could be getting the benefit of their work as well.”
“Does the Minister agree that the scheme needs to be expanded so that all artists who want to participate and meet the criteria can do so?”
“The evidence is absolutely clear. As Minister said earlier, the headline from the cost benefit analysis is that society received a benefit of €1.39 for every euro spent on this scheme. The Minister said that he is in favour of this being made permanent, I think, or at least being continued. Does he agree that it should be massively expanded? Just over 8,000 artists applied to this pilot but only 2,000 were selected. It was not a merit-based selection process but instead a lottery. There are another 6,000 artists out there who wanted to participate and contribute in this way. They were not able to because of the limited funds available for the scheme. Imagine if only one in four workers got paid for their work on the basis of a lottery every three years or only in four eligible applicants received job seeker’s payments.”
“My question goes back to the previous grouping in relation to the basic income for the arts, BIA, scheme. What the Minister said earlier was unambiguously positive in terms of the evidence of the cost benefit analysis of the scheme. Will the scheme be made permanent? Will it be expanded to four or five times its current size so that all eligible applicants can benefit from it?”
“It is not going to be delivered by Trump and Netanyahu. We need to continue our movements. We need to support the flotilla. We need to be on the streets this Saturday. We need to push for workplace action, as we saw in Italy with the 24-hour general strike.”
“There is the establishment of a special economic zone and a Trump economic development plan to rebuild and energise Gaza; in other words, a rebooted version of the Trumpian Gaza Riviera plan. And for what? There is no guarantee of the withdrawal of Israeli forces. In fact, Netanyahu has boasted to the Israeli media that, no way, that is not happening and Israeli forces will not be withdrawing. There is just simply a sentence, after lots of other things: “… the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood, which we recognise as the aspiration of the Palestinian people.” It does not even commit to any road to Palestinian statehood. It is another colonial carve-up of Palestine. It is why we need not be lulled into the sense that peace is going to come about.”
“It is the equivalent of Hitler and Mussolini coming up with a peace plan to end the Second World War. When we look at the content of the plan, and it can be found online, there is no mention of the right of the Palestinian people or people living in Gaza to select their own representatives or to have democracy. No. Instead, there is the installation of Donald Trump, Tony Blair and an obscenely named board of peace as viceroys of Gaza. Tony Blair, the war criminal, the man whose hands are dripping with the blood of 1 million Iraqis, the man who should be rotting in a prison for his war crimes, is instead installed as technocratic dictator, with others, of Gaza.”
“I want to speak about the so-called peace plan. It is not a peace plan. It is a plan for the continued colonisation of Palestine. That is what it is. I think it is shameful that the Irish Government is officially welcoming this plan, and even officially thanking Donald Trump for his efforts to end the conflict in Gaza. It is a plan for the continued colonial carve-up of Palestine - that is what it is - while they hope the global resistance movement will be halted by such a plan. We look at where this plan came from. It is a peace process. You would expect it to be a negotiation between Israel and Palestine but, no, this plan emerged from discussions between Trump and Netanyahu, between the man who is directing the genocide, and has been for the past two years, and the man who is funding, arming and enabling that genocide. It is crazy.”
“As we all know, many carers are working much more hours than that, meaning they are being paid even less than €7.43 an hour. This is completely unacceptable. It shows a continued lack of respect for carers from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Lowry group. As long as there is a means test for carer’s allowance and an income disregard, there will be an official State disregard for carers and the people they care for. Carers have had enough. It is clear. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael need to stop paying lip service to carers, put their money where their mouths are and abolish the means test for carer’s allowance. They could do it in next week’s budget.”
“It is especially important for older carers, like Tony and Susan Murray, who are caring full-time into their 70s and 80s because of a lack of Government services. Tony told RTÉ that "we have this kind of playing around with rights - there are no rights ... the fact is Aoife [who is their daughter] needs care and needs service and it’s going to cost". Our alternative budget, which is being launched tomorrow, would immediately abolish the means test for carer’s allowance, disability allowance, the blind pension and the invalidity pension. We would also increase the basic rate of carer’s allowance by €90 to €350 a week. At the moment it is €260. You jump through all the hoops, you fill out a 28-page application form and your reward at the end of that is a measly €7.43 an hour. That calculation is based on working 35 hours a week as a carer.”
“In the same way, if you are a carer you should get carer’s allowance. It is as simple as that. There should be no intrusive questions asked about whether you are in a relationship or how much your partner earns. That is irrelevant. It is also deeply sexist, as the majority of family carers are women. We need to get away from the approach that underlies this, which is about putting responsibility for care onto families. It is very convenient for the State because it saves it about €20 billion per year, but instead of privatising care or expecting families to do the work for free or at a very low cost, the State needs to step up and properly resource care. It needs to fully fund respite and care services rather than expecting charities to raise funds all the time to keep the doors open.”
“I thank the Social Democrats for introducing this motion. I have lost count of the number of times we have debated this matter in the Dáil. I welcome that there is a commitment in the programme for Government to get rid of the means test, but I will not be surprised if we end up going into the next general election with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael promising to get rid of it. The failure to provide a timeline is extremely concerning and suggests this is one of these promises that will not be met and many more debates like this will be required to keep the pressure up. We in People Before Profit are against all means testing of social welfare payments. We believe in universal benefits. If you have a child, you get child benefit. If you lose your job, you get jobseeker’s benefit.”
“It is why we have to say to the Government that, while it is welcome that we are all coming together, we in People Before Profit have signed up to a motion with which we do not fully agree. We think it is unbalanced and does not reference the almost 10,000 Palestinian hostages. It approves the New York declaration, which denies the right of Palestinian people to choose their own representatives. We signed up to it so that we can have joint words, but where will the action be? At the very least, will the Government not agreed to send an observer on the legal boat. The Government has to act.”
“They have acted while governments like our own have failed to act and other governments in the west act to arm, fund and support genocide. Israel is scared of the flotilla; there is no question about that. Let us consider the smear campaign describing it as a jihadist initiative and a Hamas flotilla and calling the participants terrorists. I read a tweet from an Israeli ministry, which had a picture of George Galloway beside someone else stating it was a particular person but, in fact, it was someone else entirely. That was presented as evidence that this is a Hamas flotilla. In a way, it is laughable and ridiculous, but it is very scary because it is a lie designed to prepare the ground to justify the kind of actions that happened on the MV Mavi Marmara in 2010.”
“I thank the relatives for being here and for the sacrifices they themselves are making, including extra familial responsibilities and the worry they are going through. I thank them for the sacrifice their relatives are making in putting themselves in danger. The flotilla they are participating in is at the vanguard of a global uprising of millions of people against genocide, Zionism and imperialism. It helped to inspire a 24-hour general strike of Italian workers that, in turn, put pressure on the Italian Government to send naval ships. Spain then came under pressure. Türkiye also came under pressure to send ships. The strength of the flotilla is that it is people acting. Incredibly, 28,000 people volunteered to participate in the flotilla and put their lives on the line. That speaks to the skill of the global movement.”
“It is agreed, but it is not satisfactory that we only ever get through two groups of questions. We are even losing five minutes today. We used to get six Question Time sessions per week. The Government got rid of Wednesday's Question Time against our objections. We are down to just Tuesday for Taoiseach's Questions and now, more weeks than not, we get through two groupings rather than three. It is on us as well, but we need to have a discussion about it. We should try to get through three groupings.”
“It is scandalous that the investigations have discovered several other criminal polluters that we would never have known about without this event. What is the Taoiseach going to do about this? Will he properly resource protection and enforcement? Will he ensure that repeat offenders, like North Cork Creameries, which has had 122 non-compliance issues and is still non-compliant, are prosecuted and have their licences revoked? Will he stop defending the nitrates derogation and accept it is contributing to the devastation of our rivers?”
“I welcome to the Gallery the relatives of the participants in the Global Sumud Flotilla. The EU confirmed this week that nature in this country is in a very poor state and that economic growth has been achieved at the expense of the environment. Even in that context, the Blackwater fish kill stands out as an unprecedented ecocide - over 46,000 dead fish floating to the surface, bringing home the mass extinction event happening silently every day due to intensive, industrialised agriculture. It is incredible that none of our State agencies apparently can find the culprit. These are the agencies that are supposed to protect our environment. No wonder locals, anglers and environmentalists are convinced there must be a cover-up.”
“What we need to debate is the changing allocation of SNAs. I have been inundated by SNAs, parents and teachers who say the model of allocation is being introduced without any process of consultation, and it will have a damaging impact on children with special needs, meaning they do not get the support they need. We need to debate it this week.”
“Will it include such things as the Common European Framework of Reference, CEFR, being implemented in the education system, Irish language courses aligned with the CEFR, increasing the number of third level courses through Irish from less than 1% to 5%, the establishment of a scheme to provide Irish language courses aligned with that and increasing the provision of education, which I spoke about?”
“The more I learn about the struggle for the Irish language today, the more I see that Wales is a consistent example of how things should be done. In Wales, currently 23% of children go to school through Welsh and there is a plan that 40% will by 2050. It is a clear, ambitious and measurable goal. What we need from the Government is a similar target, to have an ambitious target - for example 20% over a period of 20 years - and then provide for that with funding and legislation. Similarly, there are 50,000 children in secondary school who are exempt from learning Irish and there is no plan whatsoever to address that. We have a national plan for Irish language public services, which was published in 2024, but we have no plan for its implementation. When will the action plan to implement that be published?”
“I dealt with funding and housing to some degree in the introduction, so I might now deal with education and language rights, which are the other two features of the protest and the demands of the movement. The striking thing in education is the mismatch between parents' aspirations and wishes and the reality of school availability. Almost one in four parents say that if they had the option in their local community of sending their children to an Irish-medium school, they would do so. The previous Government pledged to work towards doubling the number of pupils attending Irish-medium education, but the numbers actually fell by 3%. More parents than ever are saying they would like to send their children to Irish-medium education, and the numbers are falling. Only 6% of pupils receive education through Irish. This in contrast to Wales.”
“There are only slightly more than 20,000 daily Irish speakers in the Gaeltacht. This is evidence of a 12.8% reduction in the number of such speakers between 2011 and 2022. If young people growing up in the Gaeltacht cannot find somewhere to live in the Gaeltacht, if they cannot find affordable, decent accommodation, they will not be able to stay there and that will cause a crisis for our Gaeltacht communities. Will the Government agree to provide Údarás na Gaeltachta with the power to purchase land or property for housing and social and cultural facilities? Will the Government agree to provide additional funding to Údarás na Gaeltachta to establish a housing department to facilitate a Gaeltacht population and housing strategy for each Gaeltacht language planning area?”
“Will it agree to provide €55 million in additional funding for the Irish language and the Gaeltacht, based on the proposals in An Plean Fáis? For example, Foras na Gaeilge, taking into account the effect of inflation, has 45% less funding than it had 20 years ago, while the number of community groups it is in turn funding has grown significantly over the same period. Does the Government agree that Foras na Gaeilge needs to be properly funded? The housing crisis is right across the country, but it is particularly acute in Gaeltacht areas. The figures are striking. There are approximately 1,000 Airbnbs available in Gaeltacht areas and ten properties available to rent on daft.ie or whatever platform. This is a housing crisis, but it is also a language crisis as a result.”
“Will the State and the Government recognise the historic inequality of baseline level funding for the Irish language and the Gaeltacht and the resulting negative impact that has had on the realisation of language rights for the public over many years? Will the funding gap be addressed? The figures are striking. In 1956, only 0.15% of total State expenditure in the South was on the Irish language and the Gaeltacht. In the past number of years, this has fallen to just 0.1% for the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht. An Plean Fáis 2024-2029 has been agreed and endorsed by over 130 Irish language, Gaeltacht and other groups, to tackle the impact of unequal funding, but will the Government agree to fund it?”
“There was a huge protest on Saturday in Dublin, called Cearta. The streets were dearg le fearg with 25,000 people coming out to demand action on funding for the Irish language and the Gaeltacht as well as action on education, the housing crisis and language rights. The turnout speaks to, on the one hand, a moment for the Irish language of a renewal or resurgence from below, with more and more parents wanting to send their children to Irish-medium schools, for example, and a complete failure of the Government to act on the other. We have historically low levels of funding for the Gaeltacht, an absence of investment in the Irish language and a continuation of the crisis. The budget is two weeks away. Will action be taken in line with the wishes of all those on the protest and, I believe, the wishes of the majority of people in the country?”
“Slashing funding for the tenant in situ scheme, gutting the rent pressure zones – no wonder three in five young people are thinking of emigrating. Can the Minister offer them any hope that things will get better under this Government?”
“On a point of order, the Government did not allow a motion to be passed to be further discussed. That is not what happens. The Minister knows that. That might happen with a Bill but the motion was passed. The position of the House, with the Minister’s agreement, is these awful reactionary policies that were proposed. The Simon Community is in the Dáil today to highlight the devastation the Government’s housing policy is inflicting on thousands of families. Over 16,000 live in emergency accommodation, including over 5,000 children, yet there is no mention of children in Housing for All and no sign of any new housing plan. There are strategies for ending homelessness or target dates for having no children growing up in homelessness. Instead, there are piecemeal policies that will make the housing crisis even worse.”
“Will it agree to send an observer who will not attempt to enter Gaza? The legal observer boat will stop before Gazan waters. Will the Government send an observer who will be present on a legal observer boat and who will be a witnesses and direct line of contact with it?”
“I welcome the words of concern and support and the consular assistance being provided. Respectfully, I asked what are you going to do, not what are you going to say. This is a microcosm of the Government's position on Palestine in general whereby it is able to correctly say that what is happening is a genocide but the action does not necessarily follow. It is welcome that the matter is going to be raised at diplomatic levels and so on, but what are you going to do? There are Irish citizens who, as the Minister agrees, are doing their best to try to address and stop a humanitarian catastrophe and to bring baby formula and baby food to people in Gaza. They are in danger as a consequence. The Italian Government is sending two naval ships and the Spanish Government is sending one. I am not asking our Government to send a naval ship.”
“The Spanish state has also sent a vessel to help protect it. There are 22 Irish citizens on board, including Senator Chris Andrews, with Deputy Barry Heneghan due to join him. Their lives are in danger. What is the Government going to do protect them? What accountability will there be?”
“The Tánaiste signed a joint statement on 16 September calling "on everyone to refrain from any unlawful or violent act against the Flotilla" and saying, "any violation of international law and human rights of the participants in the Flotilla, including attacks against the vessels in international waters or illegal detention, will lead to accountability". A violent act has now taken place. As a result of the pressure exerted by the Italian workers who went on strike on Monday in support of Palestine, two naval ships have now been sent by the Italian Government to the flotilla.”
“I spent two weeks in Tunis helping to prepare the flotilla. I assure the House that these are decent people from around the world who are looking to do whatever they can to try to stop the slaughter. The rhetoric being used was clearly designed to justify attacking the flotilla. On Tuesday night, 11 boats were attacked by drones, with explosive and incendiary devices and chemical substances inflicting physical damage. Yesterday, the flotilla received credible intelligence from multiple European governments that Israel is likely to escalate violent attacks on it within the next 48 hours, potentially using weapons that could sink boats and injure or kill participants.”
“All this horror could only be happening with the arms and money supplied by and the political support of the most powerful countries in the world. The US, Germany, Britain and many others are providing the weapons. Thousands of tonnes of these munitions have illegally gone through Irish airspace without the Irish Government doing a thing about it. In the face of this genocide, in the face of such complicity on the part of western governments, over 500 ordinary people have taken it upon themselves to try to sail to Gaza in order to break the siege and open a people's humanitarian corridor to provide aid and food to starving people. What has been the reaction of the Israeli Government to this humanitarian initiative? It has been to label it a jihadist initiative, to refer to it as the Hamas flotilla and to call the participants terrorists.”
“The nightmare for the people in Gaza continues to worsen. For two years, they have been facing an Israeli genocide. More than 65,000 people have been killed, more than 20,000 children among them. Some 92% of homes have been destroyed or damaged. All the hospitals have been destroyed or damaged. Two hundred and fifty journalists have been murdered. Since March, famine has been deliberately created by Israel. Every single day, tens of people are gunned down while queuing for food. Gaza city is being invaded and people are being slaughtered. Al-Shifa Hospital, the last functioning hospital there, is now surrounded, with tanks 500 m away, all as part of a plan, consciously carried out, of ethnic cleansing.”
“The Minister thinks it is okay for employers to superexploit young people by paying them less than the minimum wage. The Fine Gael agenda has been exposed. It is an absolutely disgusting policy.”