Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2026: Committee and Remaining Stages Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-15 ============================================================ Alice-Mary Higgins (IND), National University of Ireland I move amendment No. 16: In page 7, between lines 25 and 26, to insert the following: “Report on EU policy relevant to compliance 11. The Minister shall, within 6 months of the passing of this Act, lay before both Houses of the Oireachtas a report outlining the application of the Act, any relevant EU-level proposals regarding trade with illegal Israeli settlements to ensure compliance with its international legal obligation, as identified by the International Court of Justice in its advisory opinion of 19 July 2024, and detailing any further steps Ireland may take to ensure compliance through the implementation of national policy.”. The amendment looks at the core idea of the two-pronged approach the Minister has spoken of at such length. It outlines that within six months of the passing of this Act she would lay before Houses of the Oireachtas a report outlining the application of the Act, any relevant EU-level proposals regarding trade with illegal Israeli settlements has taken place. The Minister’s position is we will do partial compliance on the goods bit and that compliance with the services part, which she has acknowledged is actually a requirement for compliance in terms of the International Court of Justice ruling, will be done through the work and co-operation at European level and that those changes will be made. Where we are now is that after tens of thousands of deaths of children, families and in a situation which has got worse and worse, we still have not had action from the European Union. We are only now seeing an option for limitation in trade and goods and a prohibition of trade and goods from illegally occupied territories. This is only coming now. I do want to commend Ireland and others who have made it very clear and who are legally correct that this is a qualified majority vote issue, but we are even seeing attempts to knock the process back and push the decisions on that to an unanimity requirement. We do not have much time and we have a number of amendments to get through so I cannot go into great detail here. Here is the thing. The Minister has absolutely confirmed that compliance with the International Court of Justice advisory opinion requires prohibition of the trade in both goods and services. She has said she plans to deliver that prohibition on the trade in services through co-operation at European level. My question is on what happens if that is not done. Then it goes back to national responsibility, although it is a national responsibility anyway. I really feel the public is frustrated with anything that looks like further passing of the buck and further stalling. Ireland has the Presidency of the European Union for the next six months. Ireland, during a Presidency of the European Union, will have the huge weight of evidence, the European Union's own evidence which it has presented to the Council of Minister saying that there are breaches in human rights and telling what is happening. It will have the weight of the world's guidance and opinions, of the genocide case there and all of these other cases, as well as the statements that Israel is making weekly - daily - in relation to its intentions to breach international law. If, in that context, the Council of the European Union does not take action to ban the trade and services after that six months and if the Minister cannot deliver that in the next six months during our Presidency, then we have to say that delivery of this measure through persuasion alone does not look likely, and it certainly does not look likely within a timeline that represents justice. What I want in that report is that in six months' time, the Minister will come back as our next step, and tell us what has happened at EU level. I genuinely wish her the absolute best and we will support her in pressing for these things, but either she comes back telling us that the EU is now delivering its part of the two prongs and that it has agreed to ban trade in goods and services from illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian land, or she comes forward with steps and processes that Ireland may take, and can take as has been clarified again and again under public policy grounds, to ensure compliance through the implementation of national policy. What this is saying is that there is a six-month limit on how long we should be waiting to see if we can persuade people to move. I say that because back in 2017 and 2018 when Senator Black and I and others brought the Bill forward again, we listened for far too long to Simon Coveney and to everybody else to the speeches he gave about bringing people with us and how we were slowly making progress. I do not think anybody is going to pretend that the Israeli position has been progressing in a constructive way now. That is not what happened. Years and years were lost when the international law was clear and action was not taken. If Ireland had pushed forward then in something like this prohibition on illegal goods, if Israel had had to fight it out in terms of international law and actually had to defend its position in relation to international law at that time, rather than being able to act and continue in a culture of impunity expanding indefinitely, which has now become so rampant, it would have been good. It would have been good if we had actually shown leadership then rather than relying on persuasion and it is really important that we show leadership now. Will the Minister come back in six months? If it does not deliver at EU level, what is going to happen next? What is Ireland going to do? The other two amendments are very simple. Amendment No. 18, looks for, within 6 months of the passing of this Act, "a report on equivalent international legal obligations to prevent trade that assist in the maintenance of illegal occupation." Our time is limited so I will come to----- --- 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/2026-07-15/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:52:16+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-07-15