Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-26
============================================================

Richard Boyd Barrett (PBP), Dún Laoghaire

As it was so obvious to the world that a genocidal slaughter was taking place in Gaza and that Israel was inflicting genocide, the Taoiseach was eventually forced to say that he thought a genocide was taking place. I ask the Taoiseach a simple question: do we continue to trade with regimes that are doing genocide and treat them as normal states? Do we just treat them like any other trading or business partner? Do we continue to increase the amount of trade we do with states that are doing genocide and apartheid? Do we, in 2024 in the middle of a genocide, approve €20 million of licences to the IDF, the military force that is committing the genocide in Gaza? That is what the Government did. I say that we do not treat states guilty of genocide as normal states and that we impose sanctions on them.
The Taoiseach is absolutely right; what I want is a complete boycott, divestment and sanctions. At the least, the Government should pass Frances Black’s occupied territories Bill as he promised he would do in the programme for Government. The Government even passed a motion in the Dáil in November last year to that effect.

---

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/dail/2026-05-26/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:04+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-26