President Michael D Higgins has strongly criticised the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen for comments on the Middle East conflict which she made on a visit to Israel last Friday.
Ms von der Leyen did not include a call for Israel's retaliation to conform with international law.
President Higgins said he agreed with those who criticised the intervention of the European Commission President.
He said: "I don’t know where the source of those decisions was. I don’t know where the legitimation for it was and I don’t know where the authority for it is and I don’t think it was helpful."
He added: "It may not have been meant to have malevolent consequences but certainly we need a better performance in relation to European Union diplomacy and practice."
President Higgins also said that he had read and heard the statements from the Taoiseach and the Tánasite on the escalation of the conflict and he said that Ms von der Leyen was "not speaking for Ireland and she wasn’t speaking for the opinions that they hold".
He added: "What one is seeing in this is a thoughtless and even reckless set of actions and I don’t think it’s helpful."
He said it was important to retain and insist on the veracity and cogency of international law.
He said: "To announce in advance that you will break international law and to do so on an innocent population, it reduces all the code that was there from second world war on protection of civilians and it reduces it to tatters."
Mr Higgins also said there unanimous revulsion at the killings by Hamas of civilians and he had issued a statement on the horror of killing somebody at a music festival.
Read more: 24 hours for aid to enter Gaza before 'catastrophe', says WHO
Earlier, President Higgins warned that the world could be at "the verge of an abyss" by rejecting multilateralism.
His comments echoed those of UN Secretary-General António Guterres who used the phrase at the weekend to describe the deteriorating situation in the Middle East.
Speaking at the World Food Forum in Rome, President Higgins told delegates: "We could be at the verge of an abyss as we reject multilateralism and see our future in ever increasing expenditure on armaments rather than on the provision of food."
President Higgins also said that it is so important that future generations be allowed to look forward to a future of peace and "to reject the suggestion that war is the national condition of humanity".
He told the World Food Forum that our agri-food systems are broken and not fit for purpose. He said they are causing our planet harm, leading to food dependency, food insecurity and hunger.
In his address to the conference at the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, the President said we must tackle food speculation in crops, especially in wheat production.
"While recent volatile prices for crops are certainly a result of geopolitical movements as well as weather forecasts, these variations have been exacerbated, as studies of recent famines show, by excessive financial speculation, a speculation that is also affecting transparency as to reserves."
He told delegates that progress on the Sustainable Development Goals had been "dismal".
"We must face up to some sobering facts such as that of 1.6 billion tonnes of primary food production being wasted annually in so-called developed countries, while obesity levels continue to rise."
He also spoke about the stress faced by the planet's water resources saying that the world is at "a perilous tipping point" in relation to this precious resource.
"Today, 2.4 billion people live in water-stressed countries. Many of those affected are smallholder farmers, particularly women, who struggle to meet their daily needs, as well as Indigenous Peoples, migrants, and refugees.
"Competition for this priceless but depleting resource is increasing, and a water scarcity has now become an ever-increasing cause of conflict."
President Higgins is on a five-day trip to Italy where he will also meet Pope Francis at the Vatican.
Monday marked World Food Day, which is observed to underline the challenges of food insecurity and hunger.
Later this week, President Higgins will meet the Italian President Sergio Mattarella and will also lay a wreath to honour the late Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, who saved thousands of Jews in World War II.
