Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

Absolutely. We have a very strong aid programme that is conducted by Irish Aid and a number of well-established non-governmental organisations in this field. We will have to provide aid to the people of Myanmar following the earthquake. The slaughter in Gaza continues. We have been one of the biggest supporters of UNRWA; I believe we have provided about €58 million in core support to it. Our overall support to the people of Palestine since 2023 is over €71 million.

By any yardstick, and in comparison with anything that went before, it is a substantial aid programme for the people of Gaza and the West Bank. We are not forgetting Sudan. There is appalling violence in Sudan, and huge displacement of people, starvation and hunger. We also want a ceasefire in Ukraine. The evidence is that Russia does not seem to be up for a ceasefire right now. It is continuing to bomb and has put in belated conditions to the latest announcements around the potentiality of a ceasefire.

See this speech in context