Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Those words would count for more if there were a single instance where the Department had refused a licence. There is a big question mark over the rationale and the reason the number of dual-licence products - these are products that can be used by military forces - has actually been increasing in recent years. The value of these products from Ireland to Israel was €4.7 million in 2019; it was €70.37 million last year. Every licence application has been approved by the Department. To put this in context, medical scissors going into Gaza are denied by Israel precisely because they are dual-use products. How sick is that? Yet we are sending increasing amounts of software and other products that do have the capacity to be used by the Israeli military and we are approving every single licence. I do not believe there has been a substantial increase in demand for software payroll technology from Israel over the past seven or eight months. What we do know is that there has been an increased demand from within its military forces and their proxy organisations. I ask the Minister of State not to just use the standard processes in respect of dual-use licences as regards this issue because this is Israel. We should be applying a much more stringent level of rules because the capacity of that state to unleash unholy terror on the people of Palestine is unfolding before our eyes and we have to be crystal clear that nothing we are doing is supporting those attacks.

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