Danny Healy-Rae urges Parliament to send strong message to stop war

Thank you very much. I'm glad to get the opportunity to talk about this matter here again this evening. It's a terrible situation and this war really needs to end. And I don't know how we can influence that happening, but we need to send a strong message from this parliament here, minister. And we're a very small country. We can't do anything physically to stop or prevent the war. But we need to send a strong signal, a strong message that we do not approve of what's happening now. And it is very well reported. We see there, evening after evening, little children holding out bowls to say, would someone throw something in for something to eat? And it's tough. No one has a monopoly on talking about this. But it resonates very much with me to hear and see people starving to death. There's been explosions. There's been atrocities. There's bombings. There's every bad thing that you could think of happening there, minister. And, but it's the starving of people, the starving of children. And the country, the country, the country and the world is full of food, all I think. And, and how much food does every household throw out every evening or every, every, every, every, every, at the end of every week, how much food is thrown into waste? And to think that there's little children out there starving. And I, I, we still talk about the famine in rural places because we're reminded daily, minister, and I don't know if you're aware of them or not, there's a lot of fields up on the hillsides and the slopes where the ridges still remain, where the people sat the gardens and they didn't stay alive or there was nothing in them to dig them. And they, they finished up on the famine ships going to, going to America and other places to say, could basically get something to eat. I can remember being brought up and, and being told by my grandparents, my grand uncles, and, and the, the thing that they really worked for daily, there was no such thing as money, but it was food. Even my own father worked as a 14 and a 15 and maybe a 17 year old, uh, going around working in mayhals and different places. And there was no money, but it was basically, you'd get fed into one less, uh, at the table at home. And that's what, what, what, what, what people had to work for that time for to stay alive. I have been told recently, the man that told me, he's, he, he's no past on since, that there was a, a big strong man in the Kilgarwin parish. And he didn't have enough teeth and that most times of the day you'd meet him, he was chewing his wrist and chewing his arm because he, he was half starved with the hunger. He needed a lot more teeth than he was getting. And then kind of messages resonate and, and, and never leave my mind. And it's terrible when you look there at the television and see children holding out balls and nothing going into them. And, um, look, we're not the fault of it. And I'm not saying the government here is the fault of it. But if we could send some message and this occupied territories bill, I don't know what notice they'll take of it. But we, we, we, we do need to, to send them a message. And Europe is very lax and has been very slow to react since the start. Von der Leyen, um, uh, is not decisive enough and is not acting, uh, to the extent that she could. And we're disappointed with that. I'm asking that the opposition and the government work together here in, and, and to send this message together as strong as possible, uh, to the Israelis. And, and of course, Hamas have, uh, are, are, are, they, they played their part in this atrocity and started off. And, uh, continuing to, to allow that when I look at it from, from, from every angle. I, when I look at it from the angle that because they won't release the last of the hostages, that the Israelis won't stop the war. Surely they, have they any feel at all for little children that are starving? Uh, they must be blamed as well. And, uh, whatever side is, is right, there's no right or wrong in this war. No, it, it has to stop. And we should be clear and decisive in, in, um, saying that, that it needs to stop. And, and, and whatever the, the, the occupied territories, uh, bill, I don't know what's in it. I, I will vote for any bill that, uh, relating to this, to send the message of some sort to the, to, to, to, to all those involved that had mushed up. And we're disappointed that, uh, that the USA, uh, who have been fair back over the years, don't seem to be intervening to stop it. I'm not saying that we should say clearly that who's wrong or who's right, but we need to stop it. And it needs to be stopped, uh, for the sake of the little children that are especially starving with all their lives in front of them, that they won't ever see or realize their potential. It's, it's, it's so sad. Look, maybe I'm taking up someone else's time, but I, I feel very strongly about it. We should, uh, people are starving and, and, and that's the worst kind of, of, of debt of all is to see people starving with the home. We're not to blame it, we're only a small country, but we must voice our opinion and ask them to stop.