Slow steps taken by Government amid call for action over Gaza
But when the discussion is about the situation in Gaza, for many that explanation is no longer tenable, with those leaps forward now being urged by a growing number of people who feel the devastated enclave cannot continue to wait.
That is the dilemma facing officials in Government Buildings, Leinster House and the nearby Department of Foreign Affairs offices in Iveagh House this weekend, as both sides of the Dáil speak with one voice on the need for action, but differ on what exactly that action should involve, and when it should occur.
For Government, plans to raise the Occupied Territories Bill at Cabinet next week; to seek international backing for the EU-Israel trade agreement to be suspended while it is under review; and to describe the Israeli military and Israeli governments actions in Gaza as "war crimes" mean steps forward are slowly being taken.
But for the Opposition, further immediate measures such as banning the Central Bank sale of Israeli war bonds due; increasing scrutiny of what military aircraft is flying through Irish airspace; and calling for a formal rebuke of the United Nations' security council's response to the situation in Gaza mean more measures are still required.
Added to that political divide is the equally complex question of how Government responds to the Israeli defence forces on Wednesday firing bullets over the heads of Irish and other diplomats in Jenin, and the separate shooting of two Israeli embassy officials in Washington DC later that night.
Worrying developments which make the already difficult diplomatic and political way forward even more complex, as Government attempts to choose its next steps carefully on an issue that is now under the intensifying focus of a white-hot national and international spotlight.
Government inches forward
For Government, those steps are taking place, albeit at a slower pace than some may feel is acceptable.
The first step is perhaps the most high-profile one domestically, namely long-awaited progress on the Occupied Territories Bill.
In the lead-up to last November's general election, and with one eye on how any decision may be seen by the winner of the US presidential election which was taking place at the same time, the then Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael-Greens coalition agreed to enact a version of Independent Senator Frances Black's now seven-year-old bill as soon as possible - if reelected.
That promise has so far failed to materialise, with the officially stated reason being the need to ensure the bill would survive any future legal challenges, and Opposition claims the delay has as much to do with feared international push-back.
However, in recent days that situation has changed.
Speaking during a near four-hour Dáil statements session on Gaza on Wednesday, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Harris confirmed he will bring a memo to Cabinet this coming Tuesday on the bill, telling TDs: "The Irish people are asking and the world is asking, what does it take for the world to do more?"
The Tánaiste said the world has in his view "now reached a moment of clarity", saying the bill is needed due to "the warnings of death ringing in our ears" over the scenes in Gaza.
The following day, the Fine Gael leader repeated that view on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, telling presenter Áine Lawlor "my intention next week [this coming week] is to formally get a Government decision that I can proceed" with the Bill.
That plan will specifically involve the Tánaiste receiving permission for his officials to draft the heads of bill of the Government's version of the Occupied Territories Bill.
If as widely expected permission is given by Cabinet, officials will finalise the draft heads of bill and send them to the Oireachtas committee on foreign affairs at an as yet unspecified time in June, which will in turn examine the heads of bill in a process known as pre-legislative scrutiny during a number of subsequent meetings.
There are, however, two important hurdles to that plan, the first of which is whether the bill will include a ban on both goods and services from what are described in the bill as the occupied territories, a situation Senator Black told RTÉ's Drivetime on Thursday is needed as technologically "we're not in the 1950s, trade is trade".
That dual ban, though, is not guaranteed, with the Tánaiste saying while he is open to the possibility of including both goods and services, a wording still needs to be found that would allow the bill to survive any legal challenges.
The second hurdle is the likely timeline of the bill.
Due to the need for it to pass through pre-legislative committee scrutiny over a number of weeks - a process Government sources said usually takes eight weeks but can be accelerated - a Dáil and Seanad vote on the bill is more likely in autumn than by the mid-July Dáil summer recess.
This means that, despite recent developments, an actual Occupied Territories Act may still be a number of months rather than weeks away.
The months-long wait is clearly a problem for those calling for the immediate enactment of the bill, but it is potentially not quite as big a difficulty for Government than it may at first seem.
That is because while the Occupied Territories Bill will in reality affect a comparatively small amount of trade between Ireland and what the bill terms the occupied territories, it has arguably far more impact symbolically.
That point was referenced by the Tánaiste in the Dáil on Wednesday, when he said it can no longer be "business as usual" with Israel, and by Senator Black on Thursday who likened it to Ireland in 1987 becoming the first western European nation to ban trade with apartheid South Africa, saying "we can start something really big here, other [countries] will follow".
There could, some suspect, be a reason for those words.
On Tuesday, EU members voted to review the 25-year-old EU-Israel Trade Agreement, a move that could potentially carry far more significant financial ramifications for Israel than any posed by the Occupied Territories Bill on its own.
The EU decision was based on Article Two of the agreement relating to human rights concerns, and was not unanimous, with 17 countries voting for the review and nine - Germany, Hungary, Italy, Czechia, Croatia, Cyprus, Lithuania, Greece and Bulgaria - opposing any changes.
But the fact that calls for changes are no longer just being made by Ireland and Spain, who until recently were EU outliers on the issue, underlines how support for action on the EU trade agreement is now gathering pace.
Speaking in the Dáil on Wednesday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the EU-Israel Trade Agreement review is far from insignificant, before calling for the agreement to be "suspended" while the review takes place as well as saying he expects "meaningful conclusions" to be made by it.
While proponents of the Occupied Territories Bill believe it is crucial in order to make Ireland's position clear on what is happening in Gaza, a fact not disputed by any political party, it has also been argued that the real focus should be on the EU-Israel trade agreement due to the significantly bigger financial impact it carries.
During a private meeting with Senator Black on Thursday evening, Tánaiste Simon Harris is understood to have raised the dual process himself, telling Senator Black Ireland can push for "both" the Occupied Territories Bill to be passed and for the EU trade deal to be potentially changed.
It should not be ignored that subtly linking both legislative scenarios does give Government some limited breathing space to defend the still-slow pace of the Occupied Territories Bill's enactment while giving Ireland a degree of cover internationally as the EU may yet embark on a similar step - requirements which are rarely far from politicians' minds.
But it does also highlight the ongoing argument that progress, while slow, is taking place, and there may be hidden reasons for the pace involved.
Opposition calls for immediate action
The developments on the Occupied Territories Bill have been welcomed in principle by opposition parties, which have repeatedly sought the bill's publication and enactment over the past year.
But that welcome has carried a caveat, with the opposition also saying that the delays have been unacceptable, and that other immediate actions are also needed as in their view the people of Gaza can no longer wait on political strategy to bear fruit.
Those concerns were raised by TDs during a number of Dáil exchanges in recent days, and most prominently during the near four-hour Gaza statements session on Wednesday.
They included Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, who said while she welcomed the recent decision by the Taoiseach and Tánaiste to describe the Israeli military and Israeli government's actions in Gaza as "war crimes", that must be followed up by specific steps immediately - before saying "weasel words and carefully crafted platitudes" are not enough.
In addition to re-confirming her support for the Occupied Territories Bill, Deputy McDonald said her party will this coming week publish a bill seeking to ban the Central Bank of Ireland from selling "Israeli war bonds right across the EU".
The situation - which has been repeatedly highlighted by Solidarity-People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett and Ruth Coppinger, among others, for more than a year - is due to complex EU-wide banking rules which currently designate Ireland as the "home country" for the sale of Israeli war bonds across the EU.
That process is far from financially insignificant, with Sinn Féin's finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty saying "Israel has raised roughly €12 billion globally through the sale of bonds since Ireland became the 'home country' in 2021" - a fact Deputy McDonald told the Dáil is "an obscenity" given what is happening in Gaza.
The Sinn Féin demand for immediate action was repeated elsewhere in the Dáil chamber, with Social Democrats TD Sinéad Gibney - until recently the party's foreign affairs spokesperson - saying there is a real need for action by Government on military planes flying through Irish airspace.
Deputy Gibney referenced media reports stating some of these flights involved alleged military equipment subsequently used in Gaza, an issue which remains the subject of a yet to be published Department of Transport review, and said if Ireland is genuine about taking steps to prevent the violence in Gaza it should not ignore the situation.
She continued by saying "the bar is now so low it is not on the ground, it is hidden underneath the rubble in Gaza", before telling Government to "enact the Occupied Territories Bill, stop the sale of Israeli war bonds, inspect flights" and take other measures as soon as possible".
Those comments were repeated by dozens of other Opposition - and in some cases backbench Government TDs - over the course of Wednesday's Dáil discussion.
They included Deputy Gibney's Social Democrats' colleague Gary Gannon, who while welcoming the Government's Occupied Territories Bill announcement summed up the Opposition's reasoning for more immediate action to go alongside it, saying despite 19 months of violence the Government is in his view still only saying "next week we'll bring a memo".
But taking a different tact was Labour, whose leader Ivana Bacik told Government that a practical step that could happen immediately would be to back another Gaza-related Dáil motion her party will publish next week.
The Labour motion, due to be tabled on Tuesday, will say that in light of the fact that 55,000 people have been killed in Gaza, including 15,000 children, the United Nations' Security Council - a group consisting of the 15 most powerful UN members and whose five permanent members with vetoes are the US, Russia, the UK, China and France - has in Labour's view "failed" in its duties.
Deputy Bacik said the motion will state that a United Nations ruling dating back to 1950 allows the UN general assembly - which consists of all 193 UN members - to "act in the absence of a unanimous decision by the security council" on an issue of grave importance if it is felt the security council is unable to do so due to the veto arrangement.
As such, she added, due to the lack of action by the security council on Gaza, the Labour motion will next week call on Government to seek "an emergency special session of the UN general assembly".
At that emergency special session, she said, Ireland should table a vote on creating "an international peacekeeping force for Gaza to allow for the deliver of humanitarian aid through the UN, and the safety and security of the Palestinian people".
That proposal has underlined the Opposition message to Government at home: while progress on the Occupied Territories Bill and the EU-Israel trade agreement is welcome, other steps can be taken immediately by politicians in Ireland.
Situation in Gaza
In reality of course, all Dáil parties are in the rare position of effectively making the same point: action is needed to address what is happening Gaza.
The division is over what that action involves, and how quickly it can be introduced.
None of that, though, should take the spotlight away from the situation in Gaza, which is continuing to be documented on TV screens, radio programmes, newspapers, websites and social media every day.
It is now almost three weeks since Taoiseach Micheál Martin said in a carefully prepared written speech at the Global Ireland Summit at Dublin Castle that the Israeli military and Israeli government's actions in Gaza and plans to remove people from the enclave are "war crimes".
In the Dáil this week, TDs voiced similar concerns, united in their condemnation of what is taking place.
Sinn Féin's Mairéad Farrell said "you can only control what you can do", a view echoed by her party colleague Darren O'Rourke who said: "We need action, not statements, on Gaza."
Labour's Duncan Smith said while in his view a recent change in domestic and international political reaction to what is happening are "a day late and a dollar short", he acknowledged that "perhaps, just perhaps, the international tide is turning".
Solidarity-People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy commended Government for what he described as its "good strong words of criticism", but asked "what actions do you take".
While Government TDs Malcolm Byrne of Fianna Fáil and Barry Ward of Fine Gael echoed the remarks, saying respectively that "a sane country does not fight against civilians, does not kill children" and that the situation in Gaza is "appalling".
The calls for action were clear, and genuine - as were a number of contributions emphasising that the concerns being raised by Irish politicians are about their view of the Israeli military and Israeli government's actions in Gaza, and are not about the wider Israeli population.
But whether that action now takes place at a slow or fast pace, and whether it is measured in inches or miles, is where politicians remain divided, with that discussion likely to define Ireland's political response to the crisis in Gaza both domestically and internationally in the weeks, months and potentially years to come.
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