Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Chairman for his kind words of welcome and I look forward to working with him and the committee. I hope I will be a fast learner and catch up with the considerable work the committee has already done.

I welcome the group, which has the difficult abbreviated name of EAPPI. I am familiar with its work; a friend of mine was in Palestine last year and another friend was there as part of a Christian church group, doing fairly similar work. The work the witnesses do is great because it has a dual approach in that it is a protective presence but is also reporting back. My friend reported back to me on the situation there and still keeps me in touch with issues as they arise, and I have used that information to raise the matter in the Dáil. It is very useful work.

My question is similar to Deputy Smith's. On the issue of settlements, apart from the human misery the witnesses have seen them cause to families every day, they are also rapidly lessening by attrition the chances of there ever being a two-state solution, because the amount of land left is rapidly becoming unsustainable as a state.

I agree with the witnesses that something needs to happen, and they recommend a ban on importing produce from the settlements. The European Foreign Affairs Council has recommended a Europe-wide ban as one possible solution. Is there value in our moving unilaterally to do that? Would it have an impact? Would it be better for us to work as part of the European Union? What are the witnesses' thoughts on that? Would Ireland's banning of products from the settlements really make a difference or would it simply be symbolic, something that is worth doing just because it is the right thing to do?