Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2026: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-08 ============================================================ Garret Ahearn (FG), Administrative Panel I thank the Minister for bringing this important legislation to the House. We have an opportunity to discuss it today and we will have an opportunity next week on Committee and Remaining Stages to discuss it in more detail. I acknowledge our colleague in the House, Senator Frances Black, for the work she has done on this in recent years. She and some of the other experts in this Chamber have educated me in recent months on this Bill that she started and progressed. Many people did not expect it to get this far, even when it was put into the programme for Government, and the Minister was the one leading our group in putting forward the programme for Government. I do not think many people thought it would be delivered, but we have progressed it. Obviously, there are differing views on how far we go, but this is a real statement from Ireland in standing up against genocide and actions that are against international law. As a member of the foreign affairs committee, I acknowledge the good work of all 14 members of that committee this time last year, when we spent more than 30 hours discussing this legislation. We did it in a collective way and produced a report, although we did not have the Attorney General's advice at the time. Nonetheless, we produced a report that was helpful for the Minister when putting forward this Bill. As the Minister said, everyone can see the images of what has happened in recent years since 7 October. We could not help but be outraged by the atrocities that are happening and the people who are dying, in particular, the children who are dying. Over 20,000 children have died, more than 2,000 of them under the age of one. They are clearly not members of Hamas or any terrorist organisation. They are the innocent victims of a brutal attack on people simply because of where they are from. That is why Ireland has played a leading role in recent years in calling out the actions of Israel, and in calling for other member states to join us in calling out this atrocity. We were one of the first states to recognise the State of Palestine, to recognise its ambassador and to join the South African ICJ case. As the Minister said in her contribution, one of the most important things that we have done in the past 12 or 18 months, and that Deputy McEntee has done as Minister, with some of her colleagues, is to convince so many member states to review the EU-Israel Association Agreement. If we are looking to have a real impact on Israel economically, that is significant and important. As the Minister said, to go from two or three countries only 12 or 18 months ago to having 17 countries open to this is a cause for huge optimism. I was in Germany recently speaking to parliamentarians there. Unfortunately, they see things differently. It can be quite depressing talking to them sometimes. I know the history and the view they have, but it seems incredible that they are still not open to discussing it. I know the Minister is working hard. I know the other foreign affairs ministers of Europe are working hard to try to convince them. That is important, and what we do here is important. As the Minister said in her contribution, when other countries are asking about the legislation that we are bringing forward, asking to look at it to see what they can do, it shows the kind of leading role that we are playing. We also saw that in the foreign affairs committee when speaking to Palestinian officials, who thanked Ireland for the role it is playing. There has been a lot of talk about this legislation, for obvious reasons. It can be very emotive. I can understand why people wanted services to be included. However, there are frameworks around the decisions that we make as a Government, which is important to note. The Attorney General's advice is very important, and that is why it was in the report that we needed the Attorney General's advice. That advice trumps any expert or academic opinions in terms of how a Government makes decisions. We cannot act on legislation knowing that the advice being given is different. I welcome the fact that the Minister is trying to work with EU partners to do something in this regard. Many people say that we are possibly in breach of EU law by not including services, but that is not entirely the case. The ICJ opinion provides us with an opportunity under EU law and allows for public policy moves only in respect of goods, not services. That is important to acknowledge. Sometimes it is not mentioned. When we talk about other states having included services, the first thing is that we are the first Parliament in Europe, hopefully, to pass any legislation and that is very significant. Norway is doing something but it is not part of the EU and so is not bound by the Single Market rules. The Netherlands have started legislation but it is only at a public consultation stage. Belgium is drafting legislation. Slovenia had a general election recently and the new Government has dropped plans, which also included services. The important thing here is that this is a massive statement that I think other countries will follow our lead on. We can do more from a European level, the more of an impact that will have on this conflict. At the end of the day, what everyone wants - and there is a united approach on this - is an end to a conflict where innocent children are being slaughtered and murdered almost on a daily basis. The work the Minister does behind the scenes plays a key role in that and I thank her for it. Next week we will have an opportunity on Committee and Report Stages to go into the finer detail of it. From my perspective, over the last year in the foreign affairs committee, working with colleagues from both sides, we have developed a huge passion to try to make an impact that can go worldwide and encourage other countries to deliver on that. I want to thank people who gave their time to the foreign affairs committee to help and support us in delivering that report. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-07-08/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:10+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-07-08