Mr. Joe O'Brien:

No. The total value of Israeli imports is around the €70 million to €80 million mark but the European Commission indicates that imports from illegal settlements to the EU are a very small percentage of that. We do not know their value, but they are a small percentage of what is coming in.

On the question of whether this has been raised at EU level, it has, and we would also support that line of approach. For us, the downside of the EU approach is that all it needs is one veto and it would not work. There is more than one country which I believe would veto it, but perhaps I am being pessimistic. The value in moving unilaterally is due to the political symbolism. It will not be that it will have a direct economic impact because there is not that large a volume of settlement produce in terms of euros. However, we believe there is a willingness and an openness among the international community to do something about it. It is just waiting for some state player to act. There appear to be indications that, for example, the UK, Denmark and France would be that way inclined as well, but it needs someone to make the first move, which is why we favoured the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade focusing on a national ban rather than just an EU ban. We believe there are too many variables and it is too big to get an EU ban put through, whereas the symbolism of a national ban could be very powerful.

On the impact of the Rachel Corrie case, I would stress how well we are prepared and how well we are managed on the ground. We get rigorous training and the recruitment process is also quite rigorous. When we are on the ground we are carefully managed. We would have a good deal of local information about where the dangerous places are. We put ourselves in areas where there is a risk of some kind of conflict but generally our presence prevents that. We are carefully trained in how to manage ourselves if conflict does happen. After the Rachel Corrie incident it is always in the back of our minds that this is something that could happen to us in the field, but we are very well prepared.

Some of Deputy Crowe's questions might have been somewhat rhetorical. He asked what could get worse and could it get worse. I am not even going to think about that. I will pass over to Mr. Emmet Sheerin to deal with the reasons for demolishing the structures.