Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-26
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Richard Boyd Barrett (PBP), Dún Laoghaire

The Government is speaking out of both sides of its mouth on the question of sanctioning Israel. It is trying to convey to the public, who want to see sanctions imposed on this genocidal murderous regime, that it is imposing sanctions but in actuality it is doing everything to ensure that no serious sanctions are imposed on the regime. On the same day that 14 Irish people were being kidnapped on the high seas, tortured and abused last week and the Taoiseach was saying publicly that there should be no business as usual with the Israeli regime, he instructed Government TDs to go in and vote against our sanctions Bill, which would actually have imposed comprehensive sanctions on the State of Israel because of its crimes of genocide and apartheid and its systematic violation of international law, the very thing the flotilla activists had asked the Government to do.
We have headlines today saying that the Minister is going to bring forward the occupied territories Bill, something the Government has been promising for a very long time. At the same time, however, that Bill in actuality will gut the original Bill drafted by Frances Black by not including services. So, it will only prevent trade in goods, and maybe not even all goods. Reports in The Ditch in the last week suggest that exports from this country to the occupied territories may actually be 40 times more than are being officially acknowledged by Irish authorities because the Israeli authorities are giving much higher figures for the imports from this country.
In any event, the exclusion of services is 70% of the trade between Ireland and the occupied territories. Of course, the Bill the Government is bringing forward will not impose any sanctions whatsoever on the Israeli state itself. That is providing the support and the means for the Israeli settlers to grab Palestinian territory and annex territory. Israel was orchestrating the genocide in Gaza and is orchestrating the brutal regime of apartheid but the Government is not imposing any sanctions at all on the state that is doing it. Actually, our trade with Israel has dramatically increased over the last number of years, making Ireland the second biggest trading partner with Israel in the world. Will the Government stop the hypocrisy and actually bring forward a Bill that imposes serious sanctions on Israel for its criminal violation of international law, for genocide and for apartheid?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-26/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:04+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-26