Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)

The regulation of product labelling is not the responsibility of my Department, but is overseen by a number of domestic Departments. The Tánaiste's predecessor, Deputy Martin, undertook to discuss with other Departments the possibility of introducing labelling to identify products of illegal Israeli settlements. He reported to the Dáil in November last year on the outcome of those discussions. The position then was that, bearing in mind the existing labelling requirements, the likely small volume of products involved and the absence of significant stakeholder pressure on this issue, this was not seen as a priority by domestic Departments.

However, it is important to be clear that there is nothing to stop Irish retailers, if they wish, from clearly labelling goods to distinguish settlement produce. They could do so along the same simple and obvious lines as in the DEFRA guidelines in the UK, as either "Produce of the West Bank (Palestinian produce)" or "Produce of the West Bank (Israeli settlement)", or any similar wording. That advice has been available since last year on my Department's website, where it may be viewed by or cited to retailers or members of the public.

Taking the matter further forward within the regulatory framework is a matter for those Ministers and Departments responsible for product labelling. I have also raised at EU level the question of whether settlement products should not be excluded altogether from the EU but as I have reported to the House, there is not yet sufficient support for such a proposal to have any chance of success.

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