Bhí mé ag éisteacht le gach duine ó m'oifig. Gabhaim míle buíochas leis an Teachta Byrne agus le Sinn Féin as an motion a chur isteach. Bhí go leor daoine ag caint faoin spórt agus saol na polaitíochta, saying that they do not mix. It has been said before but I want to say it again. We all know they have mixed before. In 1981, the then Taoiseach, Charles Haughey, who was born in Donnycarney in my constituency, summoned the Irish Rugby Football Union, IRFU, and said plainly that the tour to South Africa would cause serious damage. Maybe back then, taoisigh, Ministers and Governments could do more but I do not believe so. I think the Government can do more and we need to do more. I think Mr. Haughey understood the weight of the issue. I was at the sport committee when the Minister of State said he was not going to the game. I welcome that and I understand his hands might be tied in a sense but we need to fast-forward from 1981 to November of last year when Bohemians brought forward a motion, backed by Shelbourne, Shamrock Rovers and Cork City, which was then followed by Norway, Spain, Türkiye and then UEFA itself, to stop the killing of children and civilians, and to stop the genocide. Did the Geneva Convention fall out of the sky? We have multiple independent UN reports that have said it is a genocide. We have to do everything we can. Hosting a match on a pitch with a country that is inflicting genocide is not neutral. It is a signal that the rules do not apply to that country, specifically when there is precedent for us doing it to other countries, particularly with how quickly sanctions were put on Russia. I have had an Israeli gun pointed at my head, saying that I am an Irish terrorist. I have had meetings with Palestinians, now-paralympians, who were deliberately shot in the knee while trying to leave to enter the Jakarta Olympics. Alaa Aldali was in Sicily before I went on the flotilla. He was the first Palestinian ever to compete in the UCI World Championships. He said before the race, "I dreamt of becoming a champion with both legs. After my amputation, I became determined to be a champion for Palestine with one." Despite being an amputee, he was helping to set up the ships and he was keeping guard. He is one of the most passionate and determined young men I have met. He founded the Gaza Sunbirds who were on one of the eight ships that was in my flotilla, which was painted with the Gaza Sunbirds symbol. They have visited this House. Another Deputy met them too. When the bombing started in October 2023, they stopped training and they started using bikes to deliver bread through the rubble. Their bikes were later destroyed in an airstrike, killing one of the volunteers. We cannot say that sports and politics do not apply when clearly the current Israeli regime is doing so. This is not against Israelis. We had Israelis on flotillas and we have Israelis in Israel protesting against the current regime. This is about the current regime that is in place. We need to do everything to oppose it and we need to stop the game.

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