The Government has distanced itself from remarks made earlier this week by President Michael D Higgins about Israel, saying that his views do not represent Government policy.
Speaking at the National Ploughing Championships on Tuesday, the President advocated that Israel and countries which supply it with armaments, including the US and the UK, should be excluded from the United Nations.
Asked about Mr Higgins’s comments, senior spokespeople on Wednesday said the President was entitled to his views, but they were different from Government policy.
Previously, it was the convention the President did not express views in public that were in conflict with Government policy. However, Mr Higgins has occasionally deviated from this norm, especially in recent years on foreign policy matters. Though many people in Government have resented his interventions, they have refrained from any criticism of the President, at least in public.
RM Block
Asked about the President’s remarks, the Government Press Secretary and Deputy Press Secretary — who speak for the Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris respectively — told reporters at the weekly Cabinet briefing on Wednesday evening that the Government did not favour the approach advocated by Mr Higgins, saying instead Ireland was committed to working through multilateral organisations.
“I don’t believe that is the official Government policy,” the Government press secretary said. “The President has always been very outspoken ... He is entitled to hold those views, but the Government approach is working through the UN and the EU.”
Speaking to reporters at the ploughing event on Tuesday, Mr Higgins said: “I believe myself that the kind of actions that are necessary now are the exclusion of those who are practising genocide, and those who are supporting genocide with armaments.
“We must look at their exclusion from the United Nations itself, and we should have no hesitation any longer in relation to ending trade with people who are inflicting this at our fellow human beings.”
[ Irish Government to ratify landmark UN high seas treatyOpens in new window ]
The charter of the United Nations provides for the suspension or expulsion of states from the UN. No state has ever been expelled, though South Africa was suspended by a vote of the General Assembly in 1974 due to its apartheid policies.
Last night, a spokesman for the President said: “The President was speaking in response to the clear conclusions of genocide made in the report chaired by Navi Pillay. He was suggesting that such an action is among the options which could be considered by the international community, in line with previous precedent.”
