Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2026: Committee and Remaining Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-15
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Helen McEntee (FG), Meath East

I fully appreciate amendment No. 3, with which the Senator has responded to the discussion and debate we had in the committee, where I outlined that the amendment saying "shall, within 3 months" potentially meant that any changes could not be included after those three months. The words "and may thereafter" has now been included to counter that issue. This may leave us back where we started. The legislation states: "The Minister may, by order, designate as a postal code". This allows for the Minister to include additional postal codes at any time without the constraint of a certain time period. The amendment adds "shall, within 3 months" but, to prevent that becoming a cut-off point, also adds "may thereafter", again leaving it open-ended. We are kind of cancelling each other out in the legislation. We are trying to enact this before the summer and the amendment essentially brings the Bill back to its original state. It just counters the initial amendment that said this must be done within three months.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-07-15/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:52:16+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-15