Micheál Martin

I do not have any faith in the Deputy’s capacity or her party’s capacity to deal with housing and homelessness-----

-----based on what it has produced so far, in terms of the substance of what it has put forward. Soundbites will not build houses. It is good play but it will not build houses. I do not mind having an honest debate on housing but the Deputy consistently fails to acknowledge any progress at all in terms of the social housing issue, for example. There have been 58,000 social houses built in the last…

I have genuinely seen nothing. All I see that the Social Democrats have produced is a savings and investment scheme.

That is all it has really come up with.

That is not going to not solve homelessness today, next year or the year after.

There is a lot of rhetoric but very little substance on the Deputies' side.

I again thank the Deputy for raising it and maybe to some degree with a bit more honesty than others. First of all, let us accept the distinction he has made compared with others. He is not really interested in the occupied territories Bill on its own because it just deals with the illegal settlements. He knows that. All along, he has been shouting about the occupied territories Bill but all along…

Let us be honest about what has happened here. We recognise Palestine and the Deputy moves on quickly. We intervene in the legal case by South Africa and he moves on quickly. We double down on UNRWA and he moves on quickly. We go to the ICJ and he moves on quickly.

We do the occupied territories Bill and he moves on quickly and calls for us to boycott Israel.

What is after that and after that? There has been no deep analysis,-----

-----and that is the problem. The Deputy has now moved on very quickly. By the way, we do not have the power, even if we wanted to, to stop trade with Israel right now. That is a European competency and Deputy Boyd Barrett knows that, but he is not interested in that because, as far as he is concerned, the EU can go to pot as well. He is not particularly interested one way or the other. It is abo…

Does he want Intel to stop dealing with its sister company in Israel?

Fine. Talk to the thousands of workers in Ireland working with Intel. What happens there?

Through the Chair, has Deputy Boyd Barrett worked through the implications of it? Has anyone in the Opposition done an assessment of what it would mean economically?

Does Deputy Boyd Barrett give a continental if the US goes south because of what we might do there? It is great to be virtuous, Deputy,-----

-----but for the workers’ representative, he lacks all virtuosity when it comes to protecting Irish workers. We have to take everything on board and be sensible about it. At the same time, we have been principled.

We are one of the few European member states that has stood out there. If you talk to the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Egypt or anyone in the Gulf and the wider Middle East, the first thing they say is, “Thank you to the Irish Government for leading on this”.

But no, the Deputy cannot ever say anything like that because that does not suit the campaign. The campaign for him is an end in itself.

The campaign is a means to cause further undermining of the Irish Government. He has never campaigned on the same basis against Russia or Iran. He never has despite all that has happened in Iran.

The campaign here is a deeper issue.

For me, I am very clear. We have tried-----

We all have a moral framework by the way. The Deputies do not have a monopoly on that. We have taken a lead on this. The easiest thing for politicians to do is put the chin up and be great people in sloganeering and rhetoric, but we have a deeper responsibility.

We have to protect our national interests and people at the same time.

That is the problem. As far as I am concerned, and I said it the last time, it is about finding the most effective way to do this.

We either do it in unanimity with the European Union-----