Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I do not believe that specific legislation would have any impact on accountability, in real terms. Its practical application has always been questionable. As a symbol, it had merit in getting a message to Israel but in terms of its practical working out, Senator Ó Donnghaile would have to acknowledge that in terms of realities on the ground, there will always be difficulties with it. We are working with the European Union on labelling and so forth. It is not compatible with EU law.

However, in terms of real accountability, ultimately it is the idea that people who commit crimes - war crimes or atrocities against civilians - face the prospect of going before an international court. Ultimately, that is the accountability we are talking about, and that is real accountability. It is slow, and it is hard, but it has happened. We saw it in the Balkans, and we saw it happening elsewhere in the past, but it is very slow going. The most effective thing we can do is to continue to resource the international organisations that hold people to account. That means the UN agencies in particular, which go to where human rights violations happen, and come back with reports. It could just be a report from a senior UN official. We need to resource that. Increasingly, some of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and others are frustrating efforts to resource those kinds of opportunities for international accountability.