Legislative Programme
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-26
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Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (SF), Cork South-Central

The manifesto commitments were different from the programme for Government commitments but both Government parties had access to the Attorney General's advice at that point, which was that while it is challenging to do, there is no particular obstacle to acting on services as well as goods. The Minister talked about other European countries. Ireland is now but one of five that are examining this. One of those, Spain, has effectively completed the action and another, Slovenia, is quite well advanced, as I understand it. Spain has been able to bring services into the ambit of the legislation, albeit in relation to advertisements. The fact that Spain has been able to do that and that there have been much less successful infringement proceedings against the Spanish Government demonstrates that it is possible to do this under EU legislation that there is no obstacle to acting on services. What I want to know from the Minister, first and foremost, and I ask her to be as clear as possible, is when a Bill is going to come before these Houses. When are we going to be able to debate it and pass it?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-26/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:47+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-26