Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

As a follow on, Ireland is a signatory to the genocide convention. That is in Irish law.

I believe it went into Irish law in 1973. If there is a conflict between our legal obligations under the genocide convention and our obligations under the EU-Israel trade agreement, for example, is it possible that the former trumps the latter? How does one square those circles?

To refresh our knowledge of that treaty, which is in Irish law and by which we are legally bound, it requires third parties - not just those directly involved in a possible genocide or conflict situation but third parties that are signatories to the genocide convention - to do all in their power to deter a genocide. I do not have the exact wording in front of me but it is very clear. In case law around this, for example in the Bosnia-Herzegovina case regarding Serbia and so on, the ICJ was absolutely clear that there was an obligation on states, once they knew there was even a possibility of a genocide being committed, to do absolutely everything in their power to prevent it, even if they thought that it would not prevent it but that it could possibly deter it in some way. I am curious about whether that might have any impact on our capacity to take unilateral action in relation to Israel. That might potentially release us from the strictures that Mr. Downes believes exist in terms of our trade relations with Israel.