The Deputy said this is a moment for the Government to articulate its leadership in human rights, or words to that effect. The Government has been demonstrating its leadership in human rights for quite some time and since this war began, consistently and strongly. We have been consistent in our support of the Palestinian people and their right to self-determination and in condemning the war crimes and genocide occurring right now in Israel. We have provided strong humanitarian support, but also political support, to UNRWA, which Israel has sought to undermine. We have done that consistently, not only as an individual country but in persuading other member states of the European Union to do likewise when UNRWA was under attack from the Government of Israel. We have worked with others to evacuate sick children from Gaza for treatment and care on an ongoing basis. This day last year, Ireland, along with Spain and Norway, recognised the State of Palestine. Slovenia followed. We did that in partnership with the Arab states, despite being harangued and attacked by the Deputy on this very issue. We knew what we were doing well in advance. We tried to get as many countries as we possibly could on board and to persuade as many other EU member states. We did not get as many as we wanted at the time and we did it as part of a peace process. On 19 July 2024, the International Court of Justice delivered an advisory opinion on the legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem, and the Attorney General, on behalf of the Government, made a submission to the court in respect of this. We had made a written submission and the Attorney General followed up. We subsequently cosponsored a resolution, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 18 September, which seeks to implement the court's advisory opinion. Ireland intervened in South Africa's International Court of Justice case against Israel under the Genocide Convention. Again, the Deputy attacked us in advance of that, wrongly and in an ill-informed way because she just saw it as politics. We did it substantively, with capacity and in an informed legal way and we are hoping that we will broaden the criteria by which genocide is judged by the Genocide Convention. Please do not lecture me on the Irish Government's commitment to human rights and to the rights of Palestinians to self-determination, which will continue. We are progressing legislation on the occupied territories Bill. I know what will happen as soon as that is passed. The Deputy will say what she has said about everything else we have done - that it was just symbolic at the time and her party now wants action again. I have listed all the action. There is a pattern here, which is to try to drive a wedge-----
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-----between the Government, the Opposition and the people of Ireland in respect of what Israel is doing in Gaza and undermine the integrity, commitment and good faith of the Government. The Deputy bandies around words such as "facilitate" and "complicit in" genocide, which are false. There is a false narrative being peddled by the Deputy. The latest now is this issue of the Central Bank's role in issuing prospectuses. The Deputy and I know that the Central Bank does not approve, issue, sell or oversee the sale of Israeli bonds. The Deputy knows that-----
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-----but the truth does not matter in this. The issuer, the State of Israel or the Israeli Government, does not become regulated. We are not regulating or endorsing anything.
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As soon as night follows day, when this happens something else will come on the agenda.
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I would love to get to the bottom of it because it is unworthy. We should be seeking to work together to see how best we can persuade Israel and how best the international community can.
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An rud is tábhachtaí ar fad ná-----
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-----gur chóir go mbeadh an Tigh aontaithe i gcoinne an méid atá á dhéanamh ag Iosrael.
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Children are being slaughtered.
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Innocent civilians have been slaughtered.
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No one in this House should be looking for a pat on the back.
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No one in this House should be seeking some sort of moral superiority over others in this House.
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The focus must be relentlessly on the policies of Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli Government, which is made up of extreme far-right elements, who are committing genocide in Gaza right now. Let us call a spade a spade. The Deputy knows the most effective way is-----
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-----to persuade as many member states as possible within the European Union and the United States to pull their support from the State of Israel as regards what it is doing now.
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I am speaking now.
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I have possession of the House now.
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With respect, stop trying to bully your way-----
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I have the floor.
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I am simply saying-----
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I will finally say this to you, Deputy.
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We need to have rules here in the House and not disruption.
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There are particular rules about interruptions as well.
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The key issue in housing is supply. Everything the Government is doing is and will be focused on increasing the supply of houses right across the board. This includes an increased number of social houses. In the last four years, a record 48,000 social houses have been provided. Not since 2008 has that level of new-build social housing been provided. In addition, we brought in the tenant in situ scheme. Only two months ago, the Minister for housing secured an additional €325 million for that scheme to be used in cases such as that the Deputy has raised. Local authorities are saying they need more funding in addition to that. That is the context of record State funding for the housing issue. There can be no doubt about that. The Minister for housing is engaging with local authorities on specific issues they have raised. In some cases, it is the Minister's contention that cases can be resolved with the funding that has been allocated. He is also engaging with the local authorities on some specific issues they have with regard to acquisitions more broadly. The scheme was reformed to target it more towards people in arrears who are in immediate danger of becoming homeless rather than general acquisition. We want the focus and priority to be building more social houses. Some local authorities are better than others at building social houses enthusiastically and proactively. We cannot lose the balance in moving towards more acquisition. That was criticised in this House some years ago as regards the leasing of housing for social housing purposes. We still lease some in addition to the new builds. We also acquire others, particularly in the context of the tenant in situ scheme, which has now been in operation for two and a half to three years. It has been very effective and impactful although, in our view, some of the funding was not used in a targeted way or in the way that was originally intended. We will continue to work with the local authorities in respect of the tenant in situ scheme. Meanwhile, we are also working with approved housing bodies in addition to local authorities to get more social houses built. We are also working with homelessness organisations to get more provided for people who are homeless through the housing first agenda. The homelessness issue is much more complex than it was three or four years ago. Other factors are beginning to play into it.
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Last year, approximately 1,500 houses were acquired in tenant in situ situations. This scheme has only been in place for a very short period of time. There has been a very rapid expansion of the scheme. I am not criticising local authorities. Many availed of the scheme and pushed forward with its delivery. We saw a record number of new social homes constructed in 2023, as well as local authority and AHB relets, which are happening every single week. There is a range of options for local authorities in respect of specific tenants or tenants in arrears. The Minister will continue to engage with local authorities specifically on the tenant in situ scheme and acquisitions more generally. We want to move the balance to building more social houses in the medium term but we acknowledge that, in the interim, the tenant in situ scheme continues and funding has been allocated.
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I appreciate the Deputy's acknowledgement of certain measures the Government has taken. The Government has acted, as indeed has the Opposition. The Deputy made a very fair point about the State of Palestine today and the question of how one reconstructs a pathway to a two-state solution in the context of the appalling war and genocide being waged by Israel. I am very conscious of the particular family the Deputy mentioned. That case is illustrative of the absolute immorality of this war being waged by the Israeli Government. That nine children in one family could be slaughtered in the manner in which they were slaughtered is beyond any human comprehension. I have met with groups from Palestine, both Jewish and Palestinian, who work together in the pursuit of peace and who are looking at a one-state approach now. They do not like using the term "one state" but this is in the context of the destruction that has happened, the settlement expansion in the West Bank and the utter destruction of Gaza. Those voices are, however, very lone voices and find it difficult to get critical mass in Israel for pursuing that and trying to see through this horror and destruction. I believe the most effective way we can bring an end to this - it is challenging because of the history and because of member states' positioning on it - would be if the EU-Israel association agreement could be suspended. That would be a powerful message to Israel by the European Union. While the European Union has been the biggest donor to Palestine, its performance in respect of Palestine as a cohesive body has been shocking. From the very beginning, Ireland was the first country, with Spain, to say there should be a ceasefire, a release of all hostages and that Hamas had culpability in what it did, and to call for an immediate aid surge. It is hard to comprehend that when we first sought an immediate ceasefire we were lone voices in the European Council. Quite a lot of member states instinctively supported the Israeli position because of history. Perhaps Deputies heard the German Chancellor speak yesterday. He prefaced his remark that he did not understand what the Israeli Government was at by saying a German government has to be particularly careful in how it speaks about Israel. That was illustrative of the history and a sense among some member states that have given Israel a free run essentially in terms of what it is doing.
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It is at that level-----
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-----and at the level of the United States Government that the real leverage can happen to get Israel to stop.
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On the bond issue, the Central Bank of Ireland is part of the European Central Bank. It is a constituent member of the European Central Bank. We all know that.
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No, it does not act unilaterally on fundamental matters.
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That is the reality of Ireland joining the European Central Bank. The Central Bank is independent of the Government, by the way. That is a fundamental point of central banks. Politicians and other political leaders rail against central banks. That is another inconvenient truth-----
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It does not sell.
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It is a very narrow area in terms of the prospectuses and whether that would-----
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There are limits. If all of us want to be honest about this - I want to get the right phrase here - we are really on very narrow ground here.
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We are, really. This is not as proclaimed. The Central Bank is not facilitating anything-----
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-----or approving bonds or anything like that.
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and the cases of Emilia and Hannah. Will the Deputy confirm that Hannah did not get the surgery?
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Okay. I do not want to put too much of a burden on the parent, but the issue should be formally referred to the Medical Council, for example, or to the authorities in CHI. It is important now that the Medical Council takes a role here in terms of the professional regulation of its members.
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There is an onus on the Medical Council to be proactive in respect of this issue. I am conscious that it is a random, anonymised sample, although, to paraphrase, the author says there is a preponderance to a smaller number of surgeons in this context. I do not know who the clinical director at Cappagh is, by the way, but I know who the clinical director was at that time. That in itself is a serious issue because that seems to be a shutting down of the multidisciplinary team. The multidisciplinary approach is a safeguard against wrongdoing, poor practice or ill-informed decisions because the collective can inform. I have met many consultants who say they use a collective approach as to whether they will do surgery or not. Medicine is not an exact science. That is why the collective is important. I would be very worried about that email in terms of the suspension of the MDT in respect of assessing the necessity of operations in this area. I have to be careful what I say. One further report, the Nayagam report, is coming. We do know, on a different case in terms of springs, action was taken with regard to a consultant being put on suspension. There is an issue for CHI as well in that it now needs to satisfy itself as an employer and satisfy prospective patients that there is no danger to any future patients and that the environment is safe following the publication of this report. I acknowledge what the Deputy is saying, that, by definition, the publication of the report creates issues with regard to a small number of consultants. That needs to be bottomed out fairly quickly. Obviously, the follow-through and the onus should not be on parents; the Deputy is correct. We now need to do an exhaustive examination. The Minister has already set about that, but has to put an external multidisciplinary team of professionals together to do that review of cases. That would then shed more light on the broader issues in terms of what has already been discovered in the audit with regard to veracity and verifying-----
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The Minister has said already in response to that the last evening that she is not ruling out going beyond 2010, but that the priority right now has to be followed through-----
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Let us be sensible about it. The Minister has to deal with those where skeletal maturity applies in terms of the cases that have been the subject matter of the external review, which is about 15 years. For those over that, they are in a transitional programme of care already as they transition to adult care. However, the Minister has said that this can be looked at in the context of getting the first phase done initially. I wish to make one cautionary note that private healthcare does not mean unethical. Many people who operate and engage in the private sector generally are not unethical. I do not know the reasons as to why this happened. We need to inquire further into the how and the why. Different factors could be responsible for that. I raise the fundamentals. There is an ethical framework to which every doctor is meant to adhere. That has to be the key issue for us to explore.
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