Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 22 November 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

General Scheme of the Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2023: Discussion

Photo of Pearse DohertyPearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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That is the point. The bombs are raining down on children, women and innocent civilians right across Palestine. It does not require a change in the law. We have put this forward. The Government has delayed this by nine months but it does not require a law to be changed for ISIF, in my view, to do the right thing. I do not understand it. A change in the law is not needed. ISIF's strategy could be adapted. Companies have views on what they should be doing from a moral, environmental and sustainability point of view. I do not think Sinn Féin should have to force this issue onto the agenda. We brought this forward at a time when Israel was not unleashing the terror it is has unleashed over the last five weeks in Palestine.

I am going to leave it at that but let me say this. The signal that this sends out - it is not so much a signal as a fact - is that Ireland is using taxpayers' money to fund companies that are on a UN list and that are involved in illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine at a time when we have thousands of innocent civilians being slaughtered by Israel. Stop it, immediately. I have huge regard for the NTMA and I do not believe that it needs to do this. It may want to play the game the Government is playing in terms of waiting nine months and doing its own thing. Just stop this. I do not think there is anybody out there - maybe a few but very few and far between - who would actually argue or think that it would be a bad idea for us to stop using taxpayers' money in this way.