Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2026: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-08 ============================================================ Joe Flaherty (FF), Nominated by the Taoiseach The Minister is welcome to the House. At the outset, it is somewhat disappointing that it is seen that the Government has less conviction in terms of its beliefs and willingness to highlight the inaction and deep injustices being perpetrated by Israelis. That is certainly not the case. The anger and hurt that everybody in this House feels in regard to what is happening in the Middle East, Gaza and Palestine is just as vocal and strong on this side of the House. As a Government, we have led the way. As people have said, we have been singled out, by design, more so than any other European leaders, as being antisemitic. We have certainly been to the fore. I will pick up on a couple of things. There was a point made that if we do not like the Attorney General's advice, we can get another legal opinion. We cannot have an á la carte Government. When you form a Government, you select an Attorney General and he or she is who you go to for legal advice. The Government does not always like the advice it gets but most times it has to abide by it. That is tried and tested and is part of our Constitution. That is why we have an Attorney General. Many people have referenced what has happened in Spain and insist that Spain has a full ban on services. That is not quite true. What Spain has is very much a watered-down version. It has a prohibition on the advertising of services, which is a long way off a ban on the delivery of services. The Minister set out very clearly last week, when she met her European colleagues in County Cork, that we want to build on the basis of what we have here and that, ultimately, what we need is a pan-European approach. When you are dealing with Israel, it does not deal with things proportionally. We saw that with its reaction to the November attack. Certainly, the November attack was wrong, but absolutely nothing justifies what the Israelis did afterwards. The reality is, what Spain has done has not had a major impact and it has not forced the Zionist leaders to sit up and say they are going to change their actions and do things differently. There are only really two bodies of opinion which will influence the Israeli people, and those are America and Europe as a collective body. Ireland in isolation will not do this. Certainly, we have the courage and the conviction and we have stood up and led among our European peers and brought them to this point, as part of our European Presidency, and I am proud that the Minister will take the lead on this and I am confident, as she said last week, where this will be a key pillar and plank of our time in the European Presidency. Nobody in Europe wants this to continue. Nobody on the Government side wants this to continue. Nobody on the Government side does not see how reprehensible Israel has been, how many war crimes it has perpetrated, and how we have to stop it. However, Ireland on its own is a very small island on the edge of Europe, and our action alone, as has been shown by Spain, is not going to make one jot of a difference. The only two bodies of opinion that Israel will ultimately take account of are America and Europe as a body. Many people made reference to our actions in the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. What happened was we immediately saw a European-wide response. The difference was Europe responded as a collective body, and that is what we need to see in terms of the occupied territories. I commend Senator Black. She has done Trojan work, and I do not think there is anyone in Ireland who would not acknowledge that. To have brought this Bill this far is testimony to her conviction and great moral strength and courage. We as a Government are committed to an occupied territories Bill. Ultimately, an occupied territories Bill is only as strong as the institution that implements it, and that is why I say Ireland on its own is a very small block. We need all the major European leaders and countries to come together collectively with us to implement a ban that will force Israel to take significant action and stock of its actions. It will not change them, I am sure, but it will force them to take stock and there may be some moderate minds in the Israeli Government and community at large who will ultimately put their hands up and say Israel is now a pariah in the eyes of the world and they cannot allow this to continue. --- 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