After their great win against the Netherlands last week, I begin by wishing the Ireland women's team every success tonight as they play France. Speaking of international sport, I raise the forthcoming Ireland-Israel football match. Football fans and all of us who are horrified by Israel's genocide in Gaza are concerned that this game will go ahead anywhere. We have been hearing from people who have contacted us in their droves with one message, that they want to stop the game in October. They want the Taoiseach and his Government to take a stand against the normalisation of genocide through sport. They want him to take a stand against Israel's war crimes in Gaza, the West Bank and south Lebanon. They want to stop the game from going ahead anywhere in the world. This is about more than just one football match. Taking on Israel neither starts nor ends with this game. That is why Labour has been calling for full suspension of the EU-Israel trade agreement. That is why our party has called for the full passage of the occupied territories Bill to include a ban on both goods and services. We have been calling for stronger action to prevent US military refuelling in Shannon Airport. This is about whether states that are guilty of grave crimes against humanity can continue to enjoy normal and indeed preferential treatment while atrocities continue. This is not just about Israel, Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir and their acolytes. This is about Vladimir Putin too. Ireland and the Government rightly condemn Russian aggression against Ukraine, as we all should, yet Irish-made alumina is being exported to Russia for use in weapons which are killing Ukrainian civilians. Indeed, exports from Aughinish Alumina have dramatically increased. They have doubled since the outset of Russia's brutal and illegal war. We have spent years in Ireland debating hypothetical military deployments under the triple lock. I deeply regret that the Cabinet is approving plans to abolish the triple lock today, despite strong national support for retaining it, even expressed in the Government's own public consultation. Despite that move, the Government is failing to take practical economic measures against Israel and Russia, which are states engaged in illegal wars of aggression. Aughinish Alumina is undoubtedly a critical industrial facility for Europe and we are all conscious that hundreds of jobs are tied to the plant in Limerick. A solution must be found to protect those jobs and people's livelihoods, but also ensure a ban on deadly exports to Russia. Aughinish refinery is owned by a Russian company with links to the Kremlin though a sanctioned oligarch founder. The Irish Times has reported that 80% of Irish-made alumina went to Russia in the first three months of this year. The trade Minister is disputing this figure and his own Department is investigating the ownership of Aughinish. At the same time, the Government is lobbying to keep Aughinish off sanctions lists. It is easy to condemn war in Ukraine and Gaza. What is harder is taking meaningful action against Putin and Netanyahu and against bullies. Will the Taoiseach use our influence as a proudly neutral country to stand up for international law and protection of human life in Gaza and Ukraine?

Sentiment score: -0.12

I would appreciate a response on my point on Aughinish Alumina. I acknowledge, as does the Labour Party, the strong steps Ireland has taken at international level in support of the rights of the people of Palestine. I welcome the Taoiseach’s confirmation that he has been engaging with Kaja Kallas on the suspension of the trade agreement. That is welcome but there is more that can be done. I am looking at the recent report by Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on Palestine. She has identified Ireland as one of 63 countries which she says are complicit in the collective crime of genocide in Gaza. That is a devastatingly serious charge. Clearly, there is much more we can do, and I have outlined some of the measures the Labour Party is calling on the Government to take. On the football game, of course there are complexities but it was a Fianna Fáil Government in 1999 that took a strong stance against Yugoslavia, and rightly so, after the ethic cleansing it carried out in Bosnia and Kosovo. That was a strong stance taken in the context of an international football game. Many of us remember that. That is the stance that football fans and others are now calling on the Government to take in this case.

Sentiment score: 0.29