EU-Israel Association Agreement: Motion
Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-28
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Garret Ahearn (FG), Administrative Panel

I also commend this motion put forward by Fianna Fáil Senators and Senator O’Loughlin. The suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement is something we have been calling for as a country and as a Government for a long time. It was really only Ireland and Spain who were the lone voices at the start. Thankfully, we have a number of countries now that are open to it. I think there are 17 or 18 countries open to it, but it is incredibly frustrating after seeing what has been going on for almost three years. The atrocities that have been happening include violations of international law, cruelty of the worst kind to innocent people and 70,000 people dying, including 30,000 children of whom 3,000 were under the age of one. They were never even able to walk and were murdered by bombs landing on schools and hospitals.
At the same time, we have countries that seem to be too scared or too closely aligned to Israel that they cannot speak up and say what is blindingly obvious to everyone else. What is encouraging is that the citizens of those countries are speaking up and, I hope, putting pressure on their governments. Although we have different views in this House on actions that are taken by the Government on behalf of Ireland, most reasoned people would acknowledge we have gone much further than most other countries, whether that is by recognising our ambassador from Palestine to Ireland, recognising the State of Palestine - if you support a two-state solution, surely you recognise the State of Palestine - by joining the South African case in the ICJ and having a commitment to bring forward the occupied territories Bill. Although there are differing views on that Bill, we will have the opportunity to discuss those in this House, hopefully, in the near future.
This motion is essentially about doing something that can have a real impact. A lot of the things we, and other countries, have done have been viewed as almost symbolic, which they are not. They are important, but if we want to do something that has a real impact on Israel, the EU-Israel Association Agreement can have a massive economic impact on the country. This motion is very simple. It asks that we suspend it. I foresee that it will be very hard for anyone to be against that in this House, considering the view of the Irish people.
An awful lot of work was done by the Minister of State, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste on soft diplomacy within Europe to try to convince other countries to agree with our view. That has been relatively successful over the past months. However, this is important. It is a statement. It has an impact. As we take over the EU Presidency in July, it shows the leadership this country can have, albeit we are a small country. The influence we can have is in highlighting what is blindingly obvious; Israel is acting unilaterally against every international law. It was even happening yesterday in the bombing of south Lebanon. That this is happening is just incredibly depressing for most people who are watching the news.
Obviously, the more we can do the better. The more actions and more of a lead we can take from being members of the European Union is always positive, but it can be incredibly frustrating that some countries seemingly will not agree to the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. I hope they can in the end because I do not know how many people have to be killed and how much destruction of schools and hospitals has to happen by Israel for people to take leadership. I commend this motion by Senator O'Loughlin and support it fully.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-28/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:01+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-28