Lynn Ruane (Independent)

I will start with Mr. Bruen. I know this is to give effect to an EU directive, and Mr. Bruen spoke about this Bill bringing consistency in a sense. However, to look at what is currently on the restrictive measures list and why they are on it, I went through the map of EU sanctions that is available online. Even under this Bill, the EU, and in some cases the EU and the UN, have arms embargoes, property embargoes and asset freezes on a suite of countries but they do not have any sanctions on Israel. Will this EU measure bring this consistency when we already do not have consistency in how we apply the current structures to create sanctions? Ireland has recognised the State of Palestine, but will this further tie our hands in the sense of not being able to bring any sort of sanctions on a much more bilateral level?