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FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER Simon Coveney has said he spoke to Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Ibrahim Shtayyeh yesterday and expressed Ireland’s condolences on the deaths and violence of the past week.
Speaking in the Dáil about the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Coveney said Ireland will continue to use its voice at the Security Council to draw attention to the issues.
“We will speak up even if it is not comfortable to do so,” he said.
“The loss of life, destruction and trauma we have seen in the last week across Israel and Palestine have been horrifying, but must be a wake-up call for the international community in terms of its responsibilities,” added the minister.
Letter on the Occupied Territories Bill
His comments come after the Green Party parliamentary party last night discussed a letter signed by a group of 12 party councillors who have called on their Dáil colleagues to support legislation which would introduce a boycott on goods from occupied Israeli territories in Palestine.
In a letter to the Green’s parliamentary party, seen by The Journal, it highlights that the party was co-signatories to the Occupied Territories Bill when it was introduced to the Oireachtas in 2018 by Senator Frances Black.
The Bill was passed in the last Dáil, with the Green Party and Fianna Fáil voting in favour of the legislation.
While in opposition, Fianna Fáil backed the Bill, with both Niall Collins and Billy Kelleher speaking passionately about the Bill.
“Having done that and having met with a wide range of agencies and groups, it is my view that Ireland passing the Occupied Territories Bill has the potential to send a strong message that the issue of illegal settlements is being taken seriously and needs to be addressed,” said Collins in 2018.
While there had been concerns at the time that the Israeli embassy in Ireland might shut down over the Occupied Territories Bill, Collins said it was an “overreaction”.
Three years ago, Coveney said he recognised that to prohibit the import and sales of goods from the territories would “send an important signal to the Palestinian people”.
However, he argued that the memory of such a signal may fade over time and Ireland’s reputation would be of a country willing to go it alone, rather than a country determined to influence, persuade and bring others with Ireland.
“I understand that Coveney is coming from a place where he would like to see EU leadership on this, but I feel if we wait for the EU to take the lead, we could be waiting forever,” Black told The Journal in 2018.
The letter from Green Party councillors sent this week said Fine Gael relied on “unpublished legal advice from the Attorney General to defend their decision” to block the Bill.
A number of charities, including Trocaire, supported the proposed legislation. Former AG and Justice Minister, and now senator Michael McDowell, also disagreed that the Bill was unconstitutional.
The Journal also reported that at the time the government was lobbied by US representatives and groups in a bid to halt the Bill.
Sticking point in government formation talks
The proposed legislation was a sticking point during the government formation talks, and despite the Green Party pushing for the Bill to be included, it was dropped from the programme for government.
The letter from councillors on the Occupied Territories Bill was discussed yesterday by Green Party ministers, TDs and senators, with one members stating that the parliamentary party was “very much” in favour of action, but said Fine Gael remain steadfastly opposed to the Bill.
TD Patrick Costello tweeted last week that the government should support the Bill.
The best thing we can do to live up to our duties under international law would be to pass the Occupied Territories Bill. https://t.co/D6Dr12F8VN
— Patrick Costello TD (@Costellop) May 15, 2021
Speaking in the Dáil today, Costello called for the recognition of the Occupied Territories Bill and recognition of de-facto annexation.
Hazel Chu, Dublin Lord Mayor and chair of the Green Party, is understood to have set up a meeting with the Palestinian ambassador for Dublin City Councillors today and a meeting with the Israeli Ambassador for next week.
Coveney said today that the UN Security Council must speak on this issue, adding that he has been in close contact with his counterparts in the region, including Egypt, Qatar and Jordan.
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63 grand… wow, should have gone to college
@dB O’Neill: And he’s only a jnr doc.
@dB O’Neill: You mean…should have done Medicine. Of course now you would have around a 1 in 4 chance of getting COVID-19
@D’oh: she
@dB O’Neill: You woukd also have needed to get excellent leaving cert and HPAT results, completed a what some might describe as a challenging 5 or 6 year degree, completed an intern year in which is the start of regularly working 60 hours weeks and at times 80 hour, then at leat 2 years as a SHO, during which in your free time you are completing mandatory exams with failure rates approaching 50% which cost several hundred euro a pop to sit. Also in your free time you are expected to complete audits and research to build up your CV to give you a chance to get on a highly comletetive specialist training program, which judging by this person salary she has just started. These training programs have far more applicants than spots, so it is not unusual for people to have to reapply multiple years in a row to finally get on. In addition to all this they are working in an under resourced service making life saving decisions regularly while sleep deprived and hungry. And now they are facing a world altering pandemic that is at our doorstep. You could always consider giving graduate medicine a go if you feel like it.
@Ian McBride: You could do just 1 year as an SHO and become a Registrar…just saying
@dB O’Neill: well it’s the overtime number that will boost the number
@Glangan: Apologies, I didn’t read the article, I just LOVE commenting. :-)
@dB O’Neill: going to college and doing medicine are not the same thing.
@D’oh: only? So what? Deserves even more than 63k.
@Bountyop: 1 in 4 infected people are medics, not 1 in 4 medics are infected. This is how crap info spreads.
@D’oh: she.
@dB O’Neill: it’s 83k gross with the overtime judging by the net pay
@dB O’Neill: You could try for graduate entry, take 100-150k loan , go back to college, quit work for 4 years, work 16 hour days – pass your exams ,then pay back 1000-2000 a month for 10 years.
@Kem Trayle: Fair enough, I’ll retract my previous comment. Let’s say you’re at higher risk then…
@Kem Trayle: A sobering thought is one medic a day is dying in Italy now…
To get 4400 net a month on that salary their OT would need to be able least 1600 pm before tax
@Bryan Moore: yes, that net pay figure is a bit suspicious, that works out at about €6750 gross a month
@Who cares?: For your name you really do care. deserves every penny. People coming out of college with business degrees and on 100k by 28 in the private sector serving nobody but a multinational and profits. Hospital Doctors are very underappreciated and there salary is not near reflective of what they should receive across the economy.
@Seagoat returns: calm down there Goat! Not putting down a doctors role!
All I’m saying is the figure seems odd for net, I can’t get that net take home pay and my salary is higher!
@Seagoat returns: 100k after four years on a business degree. Eh … No that’s far far from average. Be doing well to be on half that.
Her net salary looks totally wrong. Is she including piles of overtime in her calculation?
So they had time to fill this out during a week when our healthcare system is in meltdown over cv19?
@Natalka Mayo: so salty
@Natalka Mayo: Well they did say one of the days they didn’t get home until 8pm due to the tractor protest, so I presume this was well before Coronavirus ever came into Ireland as that tractor protest was a good while ago.
@Natalka Mayo: she mentions the tractor protest so I’m pretty sure this diary was before Christmas. But please continue being a begrudger. I’d imagine she works a hell of a lot more hours than the average worker.
@Natalka Mayo: how simple are you ffs?
@Natalka Mayo: clearly I didn’t read the article but great to see all the best coming out of people in the responses with the name calling etc
@Natalka Mayo: Maybe don’t comment smartly until you read the article in full then, what do you expect. That’s the problem with too many people on The Journal, far too quick to get to the comments section before actually reading the article.
I found it odd that it was a junior doctor this week considering what’s going on. God forbid I didn’t read the article and went straight to the comments. I wouldn’t be the first and I won’t be the last considering most of these don’t make sense so I jumped to the assumption that perhaps it was fake. My bad.
@Natalka Mayo: I find it odd someone would comment giving out about a person completing a diary without even reading it first. Says everything anyone needs to know about you.
@Natalka Mayo: Maybe because the health profession is very relevant currently and it gives an insight into their lives prior to this outbreak. One can only imagine how hectic their week is at the moment. Also, god forbid they actually take a half an hour out of their own time to carry out this interview. Would you actually condemn them for that!? The articles might make a bit more sense if you read them in full.
@Natalka Mayo: No she mentioned the tractor protest.. that was weeks ago before Covid-19 became an issue.
@Paula Leavy: “says everything everyone needs to know about you”
Really? Are you always this unforgiving and dismissive Paula? So according to you I’m a begrudger and I deserve to be dismissed cos I commented on an article without reading it. It would seem I’m not the only one who jumps to conclusion because not for a second was I begrudging this person yet you assumed I was and accused me of such. I shouldn’t be surprised though because one look at your twitter shows how you’re super quick to point the finger and condemn people. You’d wanna get down off your high horse there
How does she earn a thousand more than me and I earn 10K more ???
@Niamh Lyons: if you’re on nearly €75 k with take home of €3400. You need to have words with HR.
@Niamh Lyons: possibly overtime
@Niamh Lyons: has been dying for an opportunity to tell the world her salary
63k before tax?
@thesaltyurchin: it’s gross not including OT. Well deserved
@Seagoat returns: will you calm it! Jumping down people’s throats because they are trying to figure out how she gets that net pay! And fair play to her!
It would benefit the grocery shoppers if all banks reconsidered the card tapping facility and increased the limit from €30 to€50 for a period of time, most oldies doing a weekly shop would be glad to not have to interact with the debit machines as far as possible.
@Barney’s sister: they have done exactly that I think…..tapped for a €38 bill yesterday evening.
110 quid a month in tolls on top of car tax is just wrong
€500/month for a car? Is that reasonable?
That’s excellent money and he is still moaning.
@Waj Kahn: We have to work 60-90 hours per week. Work 1 in 3 weekends. Work weeks of nights. Study for exams that we have to pay for. Study for masters that we have to pay for. Do research projects in our already miniscule spare time that has potential to ammount to nothing. Also have to do all this until age 35. Have to have a PhD these days to become a consultant. Have to move every year to a different hospital. And on top of that we have one of the most stressful jobs on the planet.
@Waj Kahn: read ‘this is going to hurt’ by Adam kay and then talk to me about doctors moaning!
@Waj Kahn: where did they moan? Are we assuming it’s a “he” cos it’s a doctor
..I did speed read it as it was boring me so they might indeed have been gender specific.
@Waj Kahn: fool
@Winston Smith: get over it your education will always stand to you and create wealth for you and your children what do you expect at 35 a miracle ??
@Katherine Murray: little do you know
@Waj Kahn: Also not to mention, we very rarely get more than 1 weeks annual leave off in a row. We very often don’t get to take off full annual leave weeks. Can’t enjoy leave as you’re stressed about leaving the team down a member.
So income of 4400 and expenses of 2424 per month, nets 1976 per month. I reckon the OT is down as gross. Even still only saving 900 per month between them? Wheres the other 1526 going? Is that rent each of 1000 or 500 each? Personally I think she should do her budget on her set net income of 63k, omitting overtime, as this can vary month to month. I dont work for revolut (as I’ve mentioned it a few times in the past) but get a card and transfer a set amount in each month that you can live on. And let bills come from main current account. It’s an easier way to save cash I find anyway.
*atleast
Crap stories
@Pranab Vasudeva: I suggest not reading them then
The figures are most unclear.
To earn €1,100 net per week you would need to be on €110k per year.
It appears that this is the base salary plus overtime is in addition to €110k.
Rent at €1000 each is a rip off.
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