Mr. Brian ? ?igeartaigh:

Yes, absolutely. I have examined the occupied territories Bill. I was published on it a number of times in the national media and of course, during the programme for Government negotiations in 2020 when I talked to a number of TDs about it. It became very clear that any genuine legal discussion about the occupied territories Bill had concluded a number of years before and that we were seeing was political reluctance on the part of Fine Gael, which was masquerading as legal misgivings and a succession of spurious pretexts, including the thuggish use of the money message mechanism to block the matter. Finally it was stonewalled point-blank in the programme for Government negotiations, which is completely unethical. I think people see that for what it is. Another aspect is that another narrative around this was the insinuation by some people who opposed the Bill that the US Administration or US corporations were somehow going to take revenge on Ireland or pull the plug on the Irish economy. It is a fact that a number of US politicians, including Congressman Peter King, were focusing on Ireland and trying to block this Bill, but kowtowing to that is cowardice in the face of US pressure. As I say, I am very familiar with the occupied territories Bill and the discussions around it. It should most definitely be going ahead; it has been delayed for far too long.