Mr. Conor O'Neill:

The short is answer is "No". I absolutely do not think that should be the case. The reason is that if we look at all the available data, such as the UN database that Senator Stephenson referenced, and all of the research that has been done, it is overwhelmingly the case that it is bigger companies. The SMEs are not building websites for an illegal settlement in the occupied territory. In the minimal examples where there will be, we should not consider defending the right of a corporate actor to engage in and be involved in war crimes. I would not accept that for Russian-occupied Ukraine. It is not right if we are talking about goods or services that are involved with child labour, toxic oil spills or other serious infringements of human rights. The principal disagreement is "No", but to answer the Deputy's question, in practice those circumstances are not going to arise. The type of situation where a small company in Ireland is dependent on an illegal Israeli settlement to survive is not borne out by all our experience, research and the data.