Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)

I thank everyone for their forbearance. It is unfortunate that there are so many votes this evening. To clarify and to be fair to the Chair and the committee, in the context of the scheduling of this meeting there are more than would be typical. We would not necessarily anticipate having to depart so often. It is unfortunate and I thank the witnesses for their patience.

My first question is for Professor Butler and the arguments he makes about enforceability. I share his view that it would be preferable from a public policy point of view to address all occupied territories in respect of trade with all of them. That was a strength of the previous Bill. I understand the Government's argument about grounding the potential public policy exception through the ICJ case. In my view, there is an issue across the board regarding trade with all of those areas but I will not go any further into that.

It is fair to say what is anticipated with the heads of this Bill is a law that would be enforced through criminal sanctions for the criminal act of trading with the occupied territories. In such a consequence there are other forms of legislation that would, as we heard in previous hearings, potentially ground a prosecution for similar acts. For example, it could be under the International Criminal Court Act or the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act. Under those Acts, as I understand it, a person or company based in Ireland could currently be prosecuted for trading with the occupied territories. In a situation like that, given that this legislation has been on the Statute Book for several years, is it not the case that it has been established that where the political will exists, the Oireachtas can legislate to sanction trade with occupied territories or illegal forms of trade like that?