Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 20 March 2024
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill 2023: Discussion
Mr. Nick Ashmore:
Where it is exactly at the moment, and where it has been for some time, is in deploying our engagement process and our engagement focus through our partner Hermes EOS, which aggregates influence and voting powers on behalf of many investors in order that they can get a much stronger sense of influence over companies. Hermes EOS is engaging with companies not based on the UN list, but certainly with a strong overlap, where they have human rights issues arising from their activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, and trying to persuade them to either update their policies, change their activities or to take a more constructive approach. That is not a perfect solution. It is a stage in the process. The ultimate stage for this is exclusion, but it is something that is being actively engaged in on behalf of ISIF during the past year or so.
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