Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I join with colleagues who paid tribute to our colleague Senator Black for her pioneering work in this area. I do not think we can lose sight of that in the discussion.

I will make a comment initially and then ask a couple of questions. I strongly believe that the benefit of this legislation is in the areas of moral leadership and optics. That is borne out by the witnesses' response to questions in terms of the volume of trade. It is, therefore, about the optics and moral leadership. It is about us being able to pressurise the EU with regard to the EU-Israel trade agreement. It is also important that the Tánaiste is open to including services. That is purely a logistical or operational issue, so that is how it should be.

The witnesses might elaborate on the legal basis. How is the legal basis different for the Russian-Ukraine sanctions? What is the difference in layman's terms for those listening? As the Chair said, a lot of this is of great interest to the public, which is a great tribute to the Irish public. They are very engaged with this, as all of us are who received volumes of emails this week.