John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My position and the position of my party is very clear in terms of the occupied territories Bill. I do not think the legal advice stands up. It is just another ongoing excuse not to take any tangible, meaningful action against the illegal actions of Israel. European limitations around trade, competency rules and so forth are cited but I do not think it stands up. That argument has been completely removed from them regarding the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill 2023 because, as the Senator alluded to, this is a sovereign issue for this State as to where and who we invest our moneys with. It is a sovereign issue, so there is no excuse whatsoever. Some of the commentary by witnesses earlier about potential legal issues and getting legal opinion on that is another fig leaf they are trying to hide behind. This is very clear cut. We have a sovereign right to invest our resources where we want. It has no impact on EU competency or trade rules or elsewhere.

There are other red herrings being thrown out in respect of the US boycott legislation. Without giving any tangible evidence as to where there may be difficulties with that legislation, that legislation in the US goes back to 1979 and the broader conflict in the Arab world, for example. It was updated again in 2018. It deals solely with state-on-state issues, not state-on-business entities or anything like that.

It is another red herring being thrown up to try to stymie and stall and stop progressive legislation to hold Israel to account for its illegal actions. I have listened to the Department of Finance and to the NTA. I have listened to some, although not many voices from the Opposition it has to be said, who called for PLS to be done on this legislation. I am 100% committed to seeing this legislation through. I have heard and read the commentary from the Minister of Finance, who said in principle that he agreed with this. I am open to working with everybody across the Houses to ensure that at long last, definitive and meaningful action is taken. If amendments are needed, I will work with everybody and anybody to ensure that they are progressed on Committee Stage and in a manner similar to the piece of work that was done on the Fossil Fuel Divestment Act, where we were seen as an outlier in terms of bringing forward progressive, meaningful legislation. This was a piece of work carried out by all parties and none in the Oireachtas to move that legislation forward, which is now in place whereby we have divested from the fossil fuel industry. I will put out that appeal from today's meeting. I will work with anyone and am open to listening and working with anyone. If amendments are needed, we will absolutely advance them to make this Bill progress so that at long last, we can take meaningful action against Israel.