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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Nessa Cosgrove (LAB), Labour Panel

I move amendment No. 5:
In page 4, after line 35, to insert the following:
“Agreements for importation of certain services
5. (1) An agreement for the reception by a person in the State of a service from a supplier established in a postal code to which this Act applies, where the place of supply of the service is the State, is void and unenforceable.
(2) A court shall not recognise —
(a) a judgment or order of the court of another state, or
(b) an award made by an arbitral tribunal under an arbitration agreement, for the enforcement of an agreement to which subsection (1) applies, on the ground that enforcement of such an agreement is contrary to public policy.
(3) In this section —
(a) “service” and “supplier” have the meanings assigned to them by the Value-Added Tax Consolidation Act 2010, and
(b) the question whether the place of supply of the service is the State shall be determined in accordance with section 34 (a) of that Act.”.
This amendment aims to effectively ban - we have gone through all of that and I am not going to go over it again - the import into the State of services from a postcode related to an illegal settlement. It would do so by making the relevant contracts completely void and unenforceable in Irish law. The courts would not recognise commercial agreements or any rights or obligations they created. Through its courts, the State would be demonstrably shunning economic and trade dealings that support or entrench Israel's unlawful presence in the occupied territories. This approach would match the ICJ jurisprudence.
We have discussed at length how disappointed we are that services are not included. This amendment puts forward an easily enforceable and actionable way to bring services within the scope of the Bill. I hope the Minister will consider the amendment.

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Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:52:16+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-15