Ireland will intervene in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Loop genocide case before the end of the year, Tánaiste Michael Martin has confirmed.

He told the Dáil that “the Government intends to submit a Declaration of Intervention in the case brought by South Africa against Israel under the convention on genocide in the International Court of Justice.”

Mr. Martin spoke during a Social Democrats private member’s motion on genocide in Gaza, in which party leader holly cairns accused the Government of being complicit in the genocide.

Ms Cairns said: “We cannot, as a State, claim to be militarily neutral when we facilitate the passage of weapons through Ireland. By not acting to prevent it, the Government makes Ireland an accomplice in the massacre of the Palestinian people, an accomplice in a genocide that this Government refuses to name.”

The Tánaiste said, however, that it was “reprehensible” to make such an accusation and suggested that the situation, which Social Democrat TD Gary Gannon described as “shameful”, was being “exploited”.

Martin said the Government’s intention had always been to “submit this statement after South Africa has submitted its memorial in the case. We understand that South Africa submitted its memorial last week.”

The Government’s decision “to intervene in the South African case was based on a detailed and rigorous legal analysis. “We take this seriously and we have done it correctly.”

He said: “Work is progressing on the preparation of Ireland’s intervention statement, which is expected to be submitted before the end of this year. By making this declaration, Ireland will establish a solid basis for its intervention before the court. It is then up to the court to rule on its admissibility.”

Gannon asked “what will be left of Gaza?” while the Government goes to court. He said the Government appears to be “content to be the least worst” of nations in its response, and insisted that “we are complicit” in the genocide.

Cairns said there were “nearly 44,000 dead, including almost 17,000 children, more than 100,000 people injured, 10,000 people missing, buried in rubble and rubble.” After an expansion of the conflict to Lebanon, nothing has changed.”

“We still maintain normal diplomatic relations with Israel. We continue to maintain normal travel relations with Israel. In fact, we have increased our trade in dual-use technology with Israel. We continue to allow military aircraft carrying bombs and ammunition to travel through our airports and airspace, and this Government still will not call Israel’s actions what they are. “This is genocide.”

The Tánaiste said the Government “has also repeatedly established clear policies and procedures relating to overflights of sovereign airspace. There are procedures and a legal framework there. We don’t facilitate anything there.”

He said: “On the issue of sanctions, as this House knows, Ireland does not impose unilateral internal sanctions. “We have been particularly active against violent illegal Israeli settlements.”

Sinn Fein foreign affairs spokesperson Matt Carthy said Tánaiste and other government representatives “always strive to express the gratitude expressed to them by the representatives of the Palestinian people. I must say that this speaks more to the silence and complicity of much of the rest of the Western world than to any reason for us to pat ourselves on the back.”

Her party colleague Rose Conway-Walsh pointed out the Bill on occupied territories and said the Government had had four years to resolve the problems with him. “I have no confidence that this Government will pass this bill in the next term.”

Labour TD Brendan Howlin said that for more than a year “the people of Gaza have been bombed, shelled, buried under rubble, burned and starved. A staggering 43,000 Palestinians have died. Many believe this is a considerable underestimate. Many, up to 10,000, more are still buried beneath the vast expanses of rubble that were once the built environment of Palestine.”

Independent TD Catherine Connolly described the Tánaiste’s speech as “carefully crafted, avoiding the issue and completely out of touch with public sentiment on the ground”.