Sinn Féin has called on the government to act upon commitments made by the Oireachtas two years ago and formally recognise the state of Palestine.

The UN Security Council last week passed a resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlement building on Palestinian occupied territory.

The UN resolution demands that ‘Israel immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.’

It describes such settlements as having ‘no legal validity’ and warns that their existence threatens the two-state solution to the conflict.

Ireland has long professed its support for the two-state solution and Mr Adams said the government should use the “unprecedented” UN decision to reaffirm its position.

 “Two years ago, the Dáil and the Seanad voted to recognise the Palestinian state but the Government has not acted on that commitment,” said Mr Adams.

In 2014, the Seanad unanimously agreed a motion calling on the government to "formally recognise the State of Palestine and do everything it can at the international level to help secure a viable two-state solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict"

In December of that year the Dáil agreed a motion to “‘officially recognise the State of Palestine on the basis of the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital, as established in UN resolutions, as a further positive contribution to securing a negotiated two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

Mr Adams said he had raised the issue with the Taoiseach Enda Kenny in the Dáil on a number of occasions this year.

“It is long past time that the Irish government formally recognised the state of Palestine,” he said. “The rights of the Palestinian people to statehood should not be dictated by Israeli opposition.”