This debate is about more than a football match. It is about who we are as a people. Ireland is a small nation but in our history we have sought to play a role in the world that is larger than our size. That role has not been built on military power or economic might but on our instinctive understanding of injustice, our own experience of colonisation, dispossession and partition and our belief that small nations have rights, people have the right to self-determination and international law matters. That tradition has shaped Ireland's place in the world for generations. It is why people took a stand against apartheid in South Africa and why Irish peacekeepers have served with distinction across the globe. It is why Irish neutrality enjoys great public support. It is also why, when people witness suffering, injustice and genocide in Palestine, their instinct is not to look away but to speak out. The people of Ireland expect their Government to reflect those values always, not only when there is no cost, but especially when difficult choices have to be made. The question before us is not really about sport but about whether there comes a point when a nation says that normal business cannot continue. History tells us that there are such moments, occasions when silence is wrong and when neutrality between oppression and injustice is impossible. That is the tradition we inherited and it is the one we should honour. It is the tradition that should guide us today. That is why we need to stop the game.

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The Minister of State has two minutes on the clock to address the genocide. He has yet to mention it at all or anything that is happening.

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Hear, hear.

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