Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)

Last year, the International Court of Justice held that all states are under an obligation to abstain from entering into economic or trade dealings and to prevent trade or investment relations with the occupied territories. There was no mention of an obligation just relating to goods. Instead, it was all trade and investment relations. The Government has in the past few months discovered some legal, or what it says is a legal, distinction between goods and services but has never laid that out. The Tánaiste this morning, when asked about the Bill, said it is important that every country uses every lever at its disposal but it is not clear why that lever would exclude services.

Will the Attorney General's advice be completed and published before the Bill is brought before the committee so we can actually see the legal basis on which the Government is saying that services need to be excluded? Will the Government at the committee set out in detail why it has an issue with the inclusion of services?

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