Dáil debates
Tuesday, 27 May 2025
Restrictive Financial Measures (State of Israel) Bill 2025: Second Stage [Private Members]
9:05 am
Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."
This Bill gives us the power to put a block on war bonds being sold through the Irish Central Bank across the European Union, the power to finally sanction Israel. If the Government's words mean anything, it will support this Bill because words mean nothing if the Government refuses to act.
There are hard decisions and easy decisions. I listened to a doctor describe responding to a mass casualty event. He only had two shots of painkillers. He had to decide who would get them and who would not. He outlined the harrowing thought process. He narrowed it down to children. Children would get them. He then made the unimaginable decision to keep the painkillers for children, not with the worst injuries, but the two children with the worst injuries who he thought had a hope of living. He spoke of leaving other children close by in pain, in agony, to die. Those are the decisions he said he had to make every day in Gaza. It is gut-wrenching even to imagine it.
The bombs raining down that tore those defenceless children apart had to be paid for and, in the past year and a half, Israel raised an estimated €4.5 billion by selling war bonds in Europe. That was only possible because the Irish Central Bank gave it permission to do so. It was no other central bank. It was the Irish Central Bank.
Let us talk about easy decisions. Supporting this Bill should be the easiest decision the Irish Government ever makes. It ends our shameful involvement with Israeli war bonds. We all know we are staring a genocide in the face. Men, women and children are being slaughtered. Children are being burned alive. Today is the day we say "No more". Today is the day we stand up and are counted. On behalf of everyone who was elected to the Dáil and on behalf of the people who do not have a vote and cannot stop the Central Bank allowing the sale of Israeli war bonds - all they can do is go on the streets, march, carry their banners, write their letters and plead with their politicians to act - today is the day we can act and say "Not in our name".
The Central Bank has written to the finance committee and said, for it to act, it needs either the EU or this Parliament to intervene. That is exactly what this Bill does. It allows for national restrictive measures. It gives the Central Bank exactly what it said it needs and, more important, puts us on the right side of history. There were many times in recent years when we debated important issues in this Dáil, but none was more important than this. I appeal to everyone to do the right thing and vote to end the sale of war bonds through the Irish Central Bank.
Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
Throughout my life, which is not the shortest or the longest life, there have been conflicts and atrocities but I cannot remember anything like this. In my whole life, the only thing I can imagine that holds anything like this viciousness, senselessness, waste and slaughter is the genocide in Rwanda. I say that because it is. People would have been reluctant to use that word, but what else can we be talking about than the deliberate destruction of a place, a people and a people's right to live there? With the scenes we see, we could have this debate every week and talk about the fresh hell we have seen on our phones and televisions.
9 o’clock
The most recent image many of us would have seen was a child walking around flames in the school where she was sleeping overnight, which was destroyed. Hospitals have been destroyed, reflecting the inhumanity and the barbarism. Every time we think it has reached a new depth, it reaches even further depths. Deputy Doherty is right; there are people who are desperate to do whatever they can. For most Irish people, it feels there is probably very little they can do. Sometimes people out protesting wonder: what it is for? I suspect that many things the Government has done - and there are things it has done that I have welcomed - would not have happened without pressure from the public.
This is another thing the Irish Government can do. I look forward to hearing the Minister's response but I suspect, much like the occupied territories Bill, it is very easy to say, "Oh, well, there are legal consequences", and not really flesh it out in truth. We have seen leaked Attorney General advice that says this is a policy choice, much as the occupied territories Bill was a policy choice. That policy choice is in front of the Minister and there are things he and the Government can do. The whole basis of the International Court of Justice decision, which underpinned the occupied territories Bill and which forms the legal basis for this, is that the occupation is illegal and sanctions have to happen. Otherwise, Israel will keep acting with impunity.
The Government can do something about that. It can stop Israel. To some extent, we need the rest of the world to act but in terms of what Ireland can do, this is how it can act to ensure that Israel does not continue to act with impunity and that there are sanctions.
9:15 am
Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
It is time for the Government to put an end to the Irish Central Bank facilitating the sale of Israel's war bonds throughout the European Union. There is simply no limit to the cruelty Israel inflicts on the people of Gaza. Not content with perpetrating 19 months of genocide, massacring tens of thousands of Palestinians - mostly children, women and the elderly - Israel has imposed a blockade on Gaza.
The supply of food and vital humanitarian aid has been cut off to a people hanging on for dear life. The children of Gaza are being starved, exposed to disease and left to perish. We have seen these poor, frightened children on our screens, skin and bone. Their sunken faces and wide eyes look out into the world for answers to this simple question: who will help us and who will stop this? This is not a famine. This is starvation forced upon an impoverished refugee population with nowhere to go and no way out. This is the weaponisation of starvation against children, the sick and the elderly. The genocidal Israeli regime is sending a murderous message to the Palestinians: if the airstrikes do not get you, if the IDF death squads do not get you, if rampant disease does not get you, then starvation will.
It is shameful that the Irish State and Government would have any hand, act or part in facilitating this genocide but that is exactly what they are doing by allowing the Irish Central Bank to trade in Israeli war bonds, permitting the Irish Central Bank to act as a gateway for the sale of these bonds throughout the European Union. The Government is allowing Ireland to play a role in the financing of this genocide. Israel hides nothing about these bonds; it is very clear they are being used to fund its military onslaught in Gaza, yet Government allows this to continue.
A year ago, this very week, the Government recognised the State of Palestine, sending a message to the world that Ireland stands with the people of Palestine and Gaza. In the time since then, however, this Government has stood back and with eyes wide open, allowed Ireland to be used as a financial staging post by Israel to fund its atrocities. There is something perverse about telling a people faced with genocide that the Government recognises them and stands with them while at the same time facilitating funding the very weapons being used to slaughter their children. How doe it possibly reconcile itself with such a treacherous contradiction?
It should not be lost on anyone that the Government does this all the while and at the same time abandoning the occupied territories Bill and moving to dismantle Ireland's neutrality. Let me be clear: allowing the Irish Central Bank to continue to deal in and facilitate the sale of Israeli war bonds is an endorsement of genocide. It makes Ireland complicit. It flies in the face of the ordinary people of Ireland who have marched, protested, campaigned and, with everything they have, stood up for the rights of Palestinians to live and live free.
Irish people know our history - the history of colonisation, occupation, dispossession and starvation - and they simply will not tolerate this Government allowing the Irish Central Bank to facilitate the raising of funds for Israel's genocidal regime. Israel's war machine has some of the most sophisticated weaponry in the world but the greatest weapon in its arsenal is the impunity gifted to it by the international community-----
Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
-----that mealy-mouthed pattern of condemnation but no more, deploring but ultimately standing back and doing nothing. The greatest shield Israel has is the refusal of the international community to impose sanctions. They continue to make excuses. They hide behind so-called complexities as Israel intensifies its genocide and continues to brutally and brazenly violate international law. Let me be very clear; there is nothing complex about genocide, there is nothing complex about the mass slaughter of children and there is nothing complex about the fact these war bonds are being used to fund the atrocity of our times. The Government can put a stop to Ireland's involvement right now. That is what it should; that is what it must do because in the end, Government cannot say it stands against genocide while facilitating the funding of that same genocide.
Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
It is a fact the Irish Central Bank has been facilitating the sale of Israeli war bonds. It is also a fact the CEO of the Israeli bonds company has directly linked the money funnelled through Ireland with the ongoing war. There is no doubt what this money is paying for. Money is flowing through Ireland and is being used to buy bombs and bullets, the paraphernalia of war. We know these weapons are taking lives in Gaza as we speak here tonight. These weapons are being used to enforce a brutal cordon that is starving men, women and children. This Bill gives Ireland the power to disrupt the flow of blood money. The Central Bank has said it needs the guidance of Government. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Chambers, is silent. Inaction, allowing billions of euro to be funnelled through our State to fund a genocidal war of aggression, makes us complicit.
We rightly froze billions of euro in Russian assets after the invasion of Ukraine so where is the same rationale and approach in making a stand here? Any Government TD who has ever said they supported Palestine and who was vocal in opposition should nail their colours to the mast and support this Bill. Otherwise, we know it was only talk. This Government is very good at talking. Just look at the watered-down version of the occupied territories Bill. An occupied territories Bill without a ban on services is a tokenistic effort that is only there for Government to garner headlines without addressing the root of the problem.
Practically every Minister's first words in reply to any question are "We intend to" - "We intend to fix the housing crisis", "We intend to solve the shortage of front-line care workers" and "We intend to support children with special needs". We intend to show Ireland has a moral backbone but then why are they so slow when it comes to doing? That is the big question. Why is the Government so slow to do something that will practically change things for the starving people of Gaza?
9:25 am
John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
Yesterday, I listened to an interview that should haunt every one of us. Dr. Victoria Rose is a surgeon working on the front line in Gaza. She told us of the 2,300 families who were completely wiped from the Palestinian civil registry - gone, annihilated. Not one member of any of those families is left. She spoke of the 42,000 children who are the sole survivors of their families. They are known by the chilling acronym, WCNSF, which means, wounded child, no surviving family. Over the past 599 days, 54,000 Palestinians have been butchered in Gaza. Babies are starving to death. Food has been turned into a weapon and civilians are the casualties. This is a war crime. This is not a tragedy; it is policy. It is systematic annihilation. It is genocide yet the Government does nothing.
The occupied territories Bill has sat on the shelf for seven years. The Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill remains stalled. Israeli bombs still pass through our skies. Our Central Bank is facilitating the sale of Israeli war bonds, raising €4.5 billion for Israel's military campaign. Let us call them what they are: genocidal bonds. Dr. Morgan McMonagle, an Irish doctor, has just come back from Gaza. He has no political agenda whatsoever. He has seen the horrors first-hand. He has called it what it is, which is a genocide. Condemnation or strong words from the Government are not enough. Speeches are not enough. If we fail to act, Ireland will be little more than a bystander. We are complicit in that genocide. Action is not optional. It is a moral imperative. We must enact the occupied territories Bill, not a hollowed-out version of it. We must ratify the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill. The Minister should not hide behind dubious legal advice again. He should support this Bill and stop the sale of Israeli genocidal bonds through the Central Bank. History is watching. Will be remembered for our words or for our courage?
Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
I have said on multiple occasions in this House that Israel would continue to do what it is doing until the world forces it to stop. I was actually so far wrong, it is unbelievable. Israel has not continued to do what it was doing. What we are actually finding out is that the failure of the world to say "Stop" has resulted in Israel becoming even more depraved, gruesome and inhumane in its actions. There is now such a moral gap across the world precisely because nobody said, "Stop". It gives me no great gladness to say that we are all part of the global failure. Yes, the Government has done some very positive things, such as joining the ICJ case taken by South Africa, intervening in the genocide convention. That was a meaningful intervention. I welcome the fact that the Government has increased its contributions to organisations such as UNRWA. However, unless we make a real stand that has a real impact on Israel, all of that will count for nothing. We have to enact the occupied territories Bill and the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill. We have to be sure that not a single bullet passes through Irish airspace on its way to Israel and, yes, we have to stop any suggestion that our Central Bank is being used to funnel funds to the IDF. The Minister has to support this Bill because it will be beyond shameful if the Irish Government does not do so.
Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
This evening, the Minister stands between €12 billion that has been spent on bombs and bullets to slaughter the people of Gaza. The Minister and the Government can stop that. The horrors and the genocide being visited on the people of Gaza by the State of Israel is shocking, disturbing and disgusting. I have never seen a state so devoid of humanity and so cruel and callous - a child with no head; a child crawling through the flames of a makeshift hospital camp trying to get to safety; patients burned to death as they lie in their hospital beds; more than 55,000 dead Palestinians; dead doctors; dead journalists; dead aid workers; countless more maimed and living with horrific injuries; children with no families; and parents with no children. This is not a war. Gaza has no army. This is an unrelenting occupation and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. It is an annihilation that is being livestreamed day after day. It is hard not to feel utterly useless in the face of the onslaught but there are things that we can do. Sinn Féin's war bond Bill will remove the permission provided by the Central Bank for the sale of Israeli bonds across the EU. It is compatible with EU law and Irish law and must be enacted. Some 14,000 babies are close to death from forced starvation. I ask the Government not to besmirch our own history of forced starvation and enact this Bill to prevent Israel using Ireland to raise money for its genocide. Sinn Féin remains steadfast in its support for Palestine. Saoirse don Phailistín.
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
Let me begin by emphasising Ireland's absolute respect for international law. Our view is that this is at the core of our foreign policy. I emphasise our track record in what we have done and what we have called for on behalf of the people of Gaza. Let me make the Government's stance really clear. We condemn Israel’s illegal annexation of the occupied Palestinian territories and we condemn the catastrophic humanitarian situation arising from Israel’s war in Gaza. That is why we have taken an active role in the preparations and conduct of the forthcoming UN high-level conference on implementing the two-state solution. It is why we have pushed for action at an EU level. It is why we have welcomed the announcement that the EU will conduct a review of the association agreement with Israel. This is a step that Ireland and Spain first called for in February 2024. This is an important decision taken through diplomacy and taken in no small part, due to Ireland making the case for international law and our recognition of the suffering of the people of Gaza. In contrast to the interventions we have made in a collective way with many other countries, the Bill represents a unilateral effort to attempt to curtail the ability of Israel to raise financing on the international markets. Let me explain why the Bill does not do that and why the Government is opposing it.
I want to note that the bonds being referred to are not listed on the Irish Stock Exchange. In fact, they are not listed on any EU stock exchange. They are targeted at retail investors who purchase the bonds through promoters based in London, Paris and Frankfurt. While Opposition Members made many general points, many of which I agree with, about the suffering, harm and awful violence being endured by the people of Gaza, the speeches were notably absent on detail regarding the Bill, which I will turn to now. On the point about detail and precision, it is important that we are precise in our language. Let us be clear on the role of the Central Bank. It does not sell or it does not oversee the sale of Israeli bonds. The Central Bank of Ireland does not sell these bonds. This evening, I have heard the Opposition refer to the Central Bank trading them, selling them, dealing them or bonds being sold through it. That does not happen. Its sole role is to assess the bond prospectus in front of it to ensure that it includes all the requirements it is meant to under the EU regulation in this area.
Neither the issuer - in this case the State of Israel - or the financial products - in this case the Government bonds - become regulated or endorsed as a result of this assessment. They are the facts.
I will move on to deal with some issues relating to the Bill. I will go through it section by section, which did not happen in any speech made here this evening. Section 4 sets out restrictive measures that may be taken. It is important to note that many sections will not prevent the Central Bank from carrying out its role under the prospectus regulation.
Section 4(c) seeks to provide the means of restricting or prohibiting the Central Bank from fulfilling its obligations under the regulation. However, by seeking to permit the Central Bank to step outside the financial services legislation in the area, I am advised that these measures will be judged to be inconsistent with EU law and therefore subject to legal challenge. I hope the Dáil this evening can appreciate that any attempts by the Government to introduce measures outside the agreed legal framework in the area pose a significant policy risk.
9:35 am
Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
Except that it does not do that.
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
For the first time in the State, what this Bill aims to do is to introduce a national sanctions regime. Let us step back and acknowledge the huge suffering that is the cause of this debate but let us look also at how Irish diplomacy has worked. How it has worked is that the sanctions that we have implemented have been ones that have been negotiated, agreed and introduced at EU and UN level.
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
They are an important tool to promote the objective of the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy. Sanctions are stronger and more effective when done collectively. Rather than be seen to do something, it is far better-----
Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
To be seen to do nothing.
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
-----to ensure the outcome is effective. Furthermore, the clear advice that has been provided to me is that it is not about hiding behind the law, it is as a government and a Member of Parliament, being subject to the law.
Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
That is absolute rubbish.
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
The article is very clear that the Bill conflicts with Article 215 of the Treaty of the European Union, which is intended to preclude individual member states from issuing their own restrictive measures, which could undermine the integrity of how the EU conducts its external affairs policies. The reason for that, again, is that the EU has shown its ability to make progress when it acts in a collective way.
Statements that have been made by Deputy Doherty in particular, indicate that the Bill, which I am going through-----
Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
We can hear you.
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
-----and which did not happen in the earlier statements from Sinn Féin-----
Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
What about the genocide? What about going through the genocide?
Paula Butterly (Louth, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
The Deputy should allow the Minister to speak.
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
-----is intended to prevent the sale of Israeli bonds throughout the European Union. However, we cannot promote or even propose national legislation that prohibits the sale of something at EU level. Any actions taken by Ireland must recognise the distinction between policy areas at a national level and those at an EU level.
Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
Is the Minister serious? That is just pathetic.
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
Even if this Bill were to be enacted, Israeli bonds-----
Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
It is pathetic nonsense. It is only the Irish Central Bank that is allowed to do this.
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
-----would still be available to retail investors across the EU and further afield. Let me repeat that: even if this Bill were to be enacted, Israeli bonds would still be available to retail investors across the EU and further afield.
Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
It would not be happening in our name. At least we would be standing up against the genocide.
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
The Government does not support enacting legislation that is ineffective.
Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
That is a disgraceful speech. That speech is going to go down in history. It is a disgraceful speech from the Minister.
Paula Butterly (Louth, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
The Deputies should allow the Minister to conclude.
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
Finally, the advice I have received on the Private Members' motion is that for the reasons I have outlined, it is in conflict with the treaties of the European Union and our obligations as a member state.
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
It does not materially impact-----
Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
What about our obligations in the face of genocide?
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
-----on the ability of Israel to raise money by selling bonds.
Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
That is outrageous.
Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
It is blood money.
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
If our goal is to uphold the rule of international law then we must be sure not to violate it.
Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
The rule of international law - is the Minister serious?
Paula Butterly (Louth, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
The Deputy should not interrupt.
Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
In the face of Israeli impunity.
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
Let me conclude on this point.
Paula Butterly (Louth, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
The Deputy should allow the Minister to speak.
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
What we have done as a Government-----
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
-----is made very clear our condemnation of what is happening to the people of-----
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
We have been at the forefront of the diplomatic activity within the EU to do this. We have also been to the fore in going to the International Criminal Court, our support for UNRWA-----
Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
Tell that to the child who has been ripped apart by the bombs that are funded through sales of war bonds through the Irish Central Bank.
Paula Butterly (Louth, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
The Deputy should allow the Minister to speak.
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
-----and by making the case for change with regard to the EU-Israel trade agreement.
Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
It is shameful, utterly shameful.
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
The images that I know are a reality for so many-----
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
-----are being used shamefully here to make political points.
Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
Oh my God. That is a disgrace.
Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
Cop yourself on. Children are being killed right now.
Paula Butterly (Louth, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
Deputies should please calm down and allow the Minister to finish.
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
What they cannot do is afford a distraction from the detail of a Bill that is not able to deliver on the claims that have been made about it. They are asking the Dáil to support a measure that we as a Government believe and have been advised is ineffective.
Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
The Government could not be bothered to do it.
Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
The Government will not even let it go to the committee.
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
Tomorrow will mark the anniversary of Ireland's recognition of the State of Palestine.
Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
And tomorrow more bombs will rain down.
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
It will mark a further year in which the Government has taken the steps it can to aid the people of Gaza.
Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
That is utterly untrue. The Government has sat on its hands.
Paula Butterly (Louth, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
The Deputy should please allow the Minister to speak.
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
What I will not do is make-----
Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
His masters at EU level will be happy. Paschal will get many pats when he goes back to Brussels.
Paula Butterly (Louth, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
Deputy Doherty should please not interrupt.
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
-----a commitment here this evening on legislation, which I believe will not work, is not consistent with our law and will not help the people of Gaza.
Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
That is utterly untrue.
Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
Shame on you. That was a disgraceful speech.
Paula Butterly (Louth, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
I call Deputy Cronin. The Gallery must be silent.
Paula Butterly (Louth, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
I will suspend the House for five minutes.
9:45 am
Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
On a point of order, I want to raise my disquiet at the fact that people who were legitimately giving voice to what I believe is the widespread anger at the genocide and also the inaction of the Government, and the kind of weasel words we heard from the Minister, have all been taken from the Visitors Gallery. This is a democracy. This is a matter of absolute urgency. We are witnessing in real time a genocide play out and we have a Government that wants to give itself a collective pat on the back while sitting on its hands. The views expressed in the Gallery - that is where it is at. We need that level of anger directed at the Government because it is on some kind of vanity trip in which it does not recognise the reality of what is going on.
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
That is an appalling allegation to make.
Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
The Minister's speech was an utter disgrace.
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
That is an appalling allegation.
Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
I can tell you there is a lot in the world that is appalling. My allegation against you is the least of the worries of the world when it comes to what is appalling, Minister. Shame on you. That was a disgraceful speech this evening.
Paula Butterly (Louth, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
On a point of clarity, Salient Ruling 751 states that the Gallery must be silent at all times. They were asked twice to be silent and they continued. Therefore, there was no option but to have them removed. Everybody has the right to speak here, to be heard and to be treated respectfully. It goes for the Members in the Chamber and for those in the Gallery.
Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
It is not right that they were asked to leave.
I am disgusted but not a bit surprised that the Government has once again decided not to support our Private Members’ Bill. The Irish people have been lied to by the Government, which pretends to be supportive of Palestine when all it has done to date is recognise Palestine as a state - the best boys in the class but it is a very bad class. Sinn Féin is offering a real and credible action that can stop Irish complicity in this genocide but the Government has refused. It allows trade with Israel every single day and it was worth €4 billion to the Israeli war machine last year. It is disgusting and shameful.
I asked on Questions on Promised Legislation a few weeks ago why we were not checking aeroplanes that pass through Shannon Airport with munitions. My question was dismissed. Since when should Ireland take the word of America, the state that is supplying Israel with the bombs that are burning children alive in Gaza? I was in Ennis courthouse this morning to lend my support to a constituent, Padraic Grogan, as his case was being heard for peaceful protest at Shannon Airport. Padraic was in Ennis courthouse today doing the job of this Government and ensuring that no weapons are passing through Shannon Airport. As he said today, everything else is just noise. Twenty months into a genocide, the Government is now morally and legally complicit. Padraic put himself between those munitions and the innocent children of Gaza because his Government is not prepared to.
A brave young woman, who has already been thrown out even though she was silent, is Sophie Ní Choimín from Clane in my constituency, Kildare North. She feels she has been left with no other option but to go on hunger strike to get the Government to do more. What is the Minister at when ordinary people have to go to extremes because of his moderation, because of his cowardice? The Government should stop shaming itself and stop shaming Ireland. Support our Israeli war bonds Bill, pass the occupied territories Bill, pass Deputy John Brady's Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill and stop shaming us all.
Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
Ireland is being used to finance genocide via the Central Bank. We are the only EU member granting permission to the State of Israel for the sale of genocide bonds, bonds that Israel itself openly advertises as funding its so-called war effort. Let us be clear. What is happening in Palestine is not a war; it is a campaign of starvation, destruction and ethnic cleansing. Palestinian men, women and children are being exterminated as the world watches on. It is sickening and it exposes the colonialist underbelly of so-called Western values.
In recent weeks, acute child malnutrition increased by more than 80%, the price of wheat flour increased by 3,000%, the World Food Programme ran out of food and the World Central Kitchen closed its operations. This is not a famine. This is weaponised starvation, with hospitals bombed, aid blocked and civilians slaughtered while Israel raises billions through genocide bonds, using Irish approval to fund its reign of death and destruction.
This Sinn Féin Bill gives the Minister the explicit power to stop the Irish Central Bank from facilitating the sale of Israeli war bonds across the EU. This is not just about legality; it is about morality. We cannot be the country that decries injustice with one hand and posts the cheque with the other. Ireland has a proud anticolonial past because we know what it means to be starved, to be occupied and to be silenced. We will not stand by when it happens again to any other nation. The legislation is here to stop this. It is watertight and it reflects the will of the Irish people. For the Government and the Minister, it is now time to choose. They can continue as the financial gateway for genocide or they can shut it down now and reclaim what little moral standing is possible.
Johnny Mythen (Wexford, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
What is happening in Gaza and the West Bank is, by definition, genocide, which is defined as an unimaginable horror during which millions of innocent people are targeted based on their race, religion, nationality or other factors. Within the last few days, we have heard surgeons documenting their stories about the horrific attacks and bombardment of innocent children across Palestine. One such doctor, Dr. Sam Attar, on Sky News only yesterday described how a father had arrived at the hospital with a plastic bag. Inside was his daughter's head, arm and leg. He asked where the morgue was and where he could bury his child. In the doctor's words, this is not right; it is not natural.
This is one of the many reasons that demands that we, as a small nation, must take a stand. We must protect and promote tolerance, understanding and, above all, human rights, especially the right to self-determination. We can do this tonight by allowing the passage of the Restrictive Financial Measures (State of Israel) Bill 2025. This Bill will allow the Minister to restrict the sale of Israeli bonds - in reality, war bonds - through the Irish Central Bank. It brings to mind a quote from the banker, Baron Rothschild, that the time to buy is when there is blood in the streets. There is innocent blood spilled on every street in Gaza. It is time to stop the blood money flowing from the Irish Central Bank to the war machine in Israel. The Government, in all conscience, cannot allow this to continue. If we do, we are complicit in financing barbaric war crimes and complicit in the extermination of the Palestinian people.
This legislation is based on the fundamental principle of public policy grounds, inclusive of Ireland's obligation to uphold international law. It is constitutionally compliant with Irish law and European law and professionally drafted by the Office of Parliamentary Legal Advisers. It is time for action. It is time to listen to the Irish people. It is time to outlaw the sale of Israeli war bonds and pass the occupied territories Bill. It is time to do the right thing. It is time to pass this Bill.
Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
I listened intently to the Minister's speech. One of the things that struck me about it was that he mentioned many of the things that the Irish Government has done, recognising Palestine and all of the various actions that were taken, many of which we commend the Government for, and there is no issue with that. The problem is that when it comes to things that will actually give us real teeth, set us apart and give us a leadership role in the world, Ireland again steps back and holds back.
That is the difficulty with this.
The Minister made the point that the Bill that was before him did not do what it says it does. That is not true. The truth is - we try to find the things we can agree on - that Israeli State bonds, these war bonds or genocide bonds, have to be approved by some central bank in Europe. It is the Irish one that does it. It is not the central bank in France, Italy or any other country; it is the Irish one that does it and by approving them, then it facilitates them for sale. That is the point that we make. We are not suggesting that they are sold by the Irish Central Bank. We are not suggesting any of that.
9:55 am
Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
What we are saying is they are facilitated by the approval of the Irish Central Bank-----
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
That is not what the others said.
Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
-----and that is what needs to stop.
It is clear that the Irish Government has an opportunity to play a leadership role. Thankfully, many more states in Europe are beginning to shift their attitude towards the genocidal state that Israel has become. The reality is that this conflict did not start 18 months ago. It started in 1947 and has gone on since. The people of Palestine have been under the cosh of an imperial power since then, continually taking their territory and continually destroying their lives. What we have seen going on Gaza over the past little while is an absolute atrocity beyond the beyond and we have to step up and make a stand. This is an opportunity for the Irish State to lead in that. I appeal to the Minister to be part of that leadership and show the world that we will not be held back, that we, the Irish people who have struggled for centuries against imperialism, can lead the fight against imperialism today.
Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
The Israeli war bond Bill is underpinned by the ICJ advisory opinion delivered in July 2024. That opinion stated not only that we should act but that we have a legal obligation to act to do absolutely everything that we can. It demands that every state look at every possible lever to exert pressure on Israel. Israel, like apartheid South Africa before it, should be made a pariah state, isolated and cut off from normal social, political and economic relations because it is not compliant with international law.
The Bill is important. In fact, it is essential. It will have a concrete effect. It will reduce the moneys available to fund the genocide in Gaza and will extract the Irish Central Bank from the fund-raising effort. No other central bank provides the permission Israel needs to sell its genocide bonds anywhere in the EU, only the Irish Central Bank. That is what this Bill sets out to achieve and that is a fact. It has to change.
On that measure set out by the ICJ's advisory opinion that every country should do everything it can to move every lever it can, why is it the case that the Opposition comes in, time and again, to this Dáil and the Seanad and raises proposals only to hear from Government, "No, you have it wrong. You do not understand. It is more complicated than that."? It is a case of "No, no, no", consistently. We are expected to be grateful now to see an occupied territories Bill seven years after it was initially introduced and half the Bill that it was. We are supposed to be grateful for that. It is a shameful disgrace. It is the same in relation to the illegal Israeli divestment Bill and the same tonight. The Minister's response has been absolutely disgraceful and everybody can see it.
Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context
Given the state of relations between Ireland and Israel at this moment in time are at an all-time low and for very good reason, it is a rather perverse irony that Ireland is regarded as Israel's home country for the purpose of facilitating the sale of its war bonds in the EU.
I note the Minister's assessment of the Bill but the truth remains. We are a cog in this wheel. Israel's bonds - the Minister is correct - are not listed for sale on the Irish Stock Exchange. That is true but is only half the story. Owing to a odd twist of fate, Ireland is at the heart of the sale of these blood-stained bonds in the EU in another perverse outworking of Brexit. Whatever way we look at it or splice and dice it, the Irish Central Bank has a special role in facilitating their sale in the EU.
To be sold in the EU, bonds from non-EU countries must have their bond prospectus a legal document setting out details of the bond, approved by the central bank of a country that is in the EU. Before Brexit, the UK carried out this work for Israel. After they left the EU, Israel chose Ireland to be its "home country" for this purpose, meaning the Irish Central Bank is responsible for approving its bond prospectus. That puts our Central Bank, our financial services regulator, in the uncomfortable and, frankly, unacceptable position, in my view, of facilitating the sale of bonds that are funding Israel's relentless and brutal assault on the Palestinian people.
These bonds have become known, as we know, as war bonds and Israel is making no attempt to hide the fact that these bonds or securities are funding directly the onslaught on Gaza. The CEO of Israel Bonds, the organisation that sells these bonds, Dani Naveh, has spoken in the media about how money generated from the sale of Israeli bonds has been used to fund military operations in Gaza. The unique position of our Central Bank in this chain gives the Irish State significant leverage, it if chooses to use it, in starving the Israeli military of funding and if we do not pull this lever, then our fine words calling for peace and an end to genocide are just words.
Pressure has been mounting on the Government at a number of levels to introduce legislation that would effectively stop Ireland facilitating - I use that word "facilitating" deliberately - the sale of Israeli bonds across the EU, and rightly so. I note the Minister's assessment of the Bill and its contents earlier on.
In recent weeks, there have been protests at the Central Bank of Ireland calling for action and regardless of what side of the House or political spectrum we are on, we all have a moral responsibility to do all we can. I am aware that the Central Bank position is that it can only refuse to approve these bonds where it has the legal basis to do so, such as sanctions, for example, being introduced against Israel at an EU level or where there are national restrictive measures to the same effect but the Government will be aware that this is a contested space and that this is disputed by many. Helen Mahony, co-ordinator of Stop Funding Genocide, the campaign that is being run by the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, told The Journal recently that she believes the Central Bank is wrong in its interpretation of its obligations. Ms Mahony stated:
The thing about this EU Prospectus Regulation is that it’s designed to set out technical standards that a prospectus has to reach. But implicit in that is that the prospectus is for at least lawful reasons. ... no EU regulation is designed to legitimise genocide or to legitimise criminal intent.
Ms Mahony went on to say:
It makes no sense to say that an EU regulation is forcing somebody to become complicit in genocide. No organisation, neither a business nor a bank nor an educational institution, for that matter, or any institution is not bound by the Genocide Convention and not bound by international humanitarian law.
Of course, Ms Mahony is correct. Nobody in their right mind can argue that an EU regulation could force any institution in the State to be complicit in genocide and the Government must act to make sure the Central Bank is no longer in that kind of position.
Along with the passing of the occupied territories Bill, the measures proposed in this Bill and the motion my party will bring to the Dáil tomorrow will put Ireland's money where its mouth is in defence of the Palestinian people and in defence of humanity, of multilateralism and of justice. The Minister has a strong firm moral compass and I ask him to assess the approaches that Opposition parties are seeking to take through that lens.
Recently, my Labour Party colleague, Senator Nessa Cosgrove, hosted a group of Irish healthcare workers who volunteer in Gaza. The group spoke of how no aspect of healthcare has been left untouched by the Israeli and they outlined what the Irish Government could do to help end the suffering. They told us there is no longer a single fully functioning hospital in Gaza.
All have been damaged and many have been totally destroyed. While the killing of the 14 healthcare and unarmed civil defence workers quite rightly hit the headlines in March of this year, this horrendous event represents just 1% of the healthcare workers killed by Israel since October 2023. Between 1,000 and 1,400 healthcare workers have been killed by Israel. This includes some who were tortured to death. Hundreds of others have been abducted by the Israel Defense Forces. Surgeons have been assaulted and taken away in the middle of operations. Others have been prevented from offering assistance to those in need, from going to work or even from entering Gaza. Civilians have been abducted from hospitals even as they lay on the operating table. Who among us, in this Chamber or elsewhere, will ever forget the despair on the face of Dr. Alaa al-Najjar as she received the dead bodies of nine of her ten children as she did her job as a doctor at the Nasser Medical Complex towards the end of last week? All of this is to say nothing of the more than 50,000 people who have been killed in this conflict and the tens of thousands more who are currently at risk of starving to death as the Israeli regime denies them international aid.
One of the actions that courageous group of health workers called for was precisely what is called for in the approach this Bill is taking. That one measure is to stop the Central Bank of Ireland from creating the ground for or facilitating the sale of Israel's war bonds in the EU. Not to act on this now will make the State complicit. We have consistently called out and condemned Israel. It is now time to put those statements into action. We cannot speak out of both sides of our mouth. Our words have to be backed up by action. The time for talking is long past. It is time to act. Our actions are being watched. We in this country can send out a signal through a range of measures such as the enactment of the occupied territories Bill as it was originally intended. If implemented, those kinds of actions would be seen by the whole world. These are pioneering initiatives Ireland could take to end this genocide and to create a just and lasting peace in Palestine. We can no longer stand by and watch this genocide unfold. We need to act now, do everything we can and use every lever at our disposal to stop it.
10:05 am
Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context
I thank Sinn Féin for introducing this Bill, which aims to empower the Minister for Finance to impose restrictions on securities issued by the State of Israel. Ireland is the home country for Israeli bonds sold in the European Union. It is up to non-EU countries to decide which member state they want to sell their bonds from. The Central Bank can only object if it believes it has no legal jurisdiction for the approval. This Bill intends to change that.
The sale of these bonds makes us complicit in Israel's genocide against the Palestinian people. It is clear that the money raised from these bonds is being used to finance genocide in Gaza. It may seem or be portrayed as a neutral technical transaction to facilitate the sale of Israeli bonds through our Central Bank but the sale of these bonds allows Israel to buy warplanes, missiles, ammunition and targeting software. What is put forward as a clean technical transaction and something so mundane that we could not stop it even if we tried is raising the money needed to keep aid out and to raze Gaza to the ground. The Governor and the Central Bank commission say that, because they are not marketed as war bonds, there is nothing the bank can do. They say that the evidence of their being war bonds comes from press sources, which is not enough to warrant action. Through our role in facilitating the sale of these bonds in the EU, Ireland makes possible the horrific war crimes we see on our screens every day. We become complicit.
Níl sé maith go leor go mbeadh an Rialtas sásta tada a dhéanamh chun díol na mbannaí seo a stopadh. Caithfimid gach rud gur féidir linn a dhéanamh chun an cinedhíothú i nGaza a stopadh. Is é sin díreach céard atá sa Bhille seo. If people will not act because they believe they cannot, we, as legislators, must prove that they can. We are meant to lead in this Chamber. When we are silent and fail to act, we make it harder for everyone else to act.
The Central Bank has said several times that its hands are tied as regards these bonds but its own ethical code of conduct states, "Acting with integrity requires a higher standard of behaviour than simply achieving a basic level of compliance with applicable laws and/or regulations." I argue that the Genocide Convention trumps banking law. Our duty to prevent genocide does not come from a court ruling but from the evidence before our eyes. It is easy for the Central Bank to fail to live up to those words when we in this Chamber also fail to live up to the words we speak. We have a chance to make sure we all live up to our obligation to prevent and stop genocide. If the Central Bank will not act to stop the sale of these bonds and not to renew the licence in a few months' time, we in this Chamber must lead to make this happen.
We have seen how mundane transactions and business as usual have allowed genocide to continue. Every packet of dates or soft drink sold generates the little profits that make war possible. We have seen the brave resistance of people in the face of prosecution in jurisdictions all over the world in supporting boycotts, divestments and sanctions. There cannot be any business as usual in the face of genocide. There cannot be any more delay. We need to ban the sale of these bonds through our Central Bank.
Le rófhada, tá an Rialtas tar éis dul i bhfolach taobh thiar d'fhocail agus taobh thiar d'airgead tugtha mar chabhair dhaonnúil. Níl aon duine sa Seomra seo ag rá nár chóir na rudaí sin a dhéanamh ach is léir dúinn ar fad go bhfuil i bhfad níos mó rudaí ann gur féidir linn a dhéanamh chun a chur in aghaidh an chinedhíothaithe i nGaza. Caithfimid a bheith mar cheannairí ní hamháin lenár bhfocail ach lenár ngníomhartha.
We have seen the result of governments, institutions and the world doing less than the bare minimum to live up to our duties and obligations under the Genocide Convention, human rights law and international law. Over a year and a half ago, we saw a hospital bombed. We then saw another and another. We waited for the international community to take action. We waited for our Government to take action. The Palestinian people waited for anyone to take action. Only in recent weeks has rhetoric changed. The European Union will review the EU-Israel association agreement but let us remember that suspension would only revoke a privilege that Israel enjoys with its largest trading partner. A year and a half later, we still wait for sanctions and the occupied territories Bill and we allow these bonds to be sold through the facilitation of our Central Bank. Many in the Government will be at pains to say that we have done more than other countries. The Minister said it in his response. However, Ireland has not even done the bare minimum. I will say again what I said last week - the bar on this is not just low; it is buried under the rubble in Gaza. If we and the world want to stop this genocide, we need to start with the bare minimum and then we must build and build until Israel is stopped and the people of Palestine are free. We owe that much to the children, women and men we have waited to help. Passing this Bill is a step towards doing just that.
It is clear from the legal advice the OPLA provided to Sinn Féin that this Bill is robust and workable and should be passed. We in the Social Democrats will not close our eyes. We will not look away, we will not be made complicit in genocide and we will not stop fighting until this genocide is stopped and peace, justice and self-determination are guaranteed for the Palestinian people.
Liam Quaide (Cork East, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context
I commend Sinn Féin on its motion this evening. I fully support it. I will take the opportunity to say a few words about the occupied territories Bill and the remarkable journey this legislation has been on since 2018. It simply will not go away and this is in large part due to the incredible determination and forbearance of Senator Frances Black and her colleague Conor O'Neill. Whether the occupied territories Bill remains obstructed by Government under the guise of legal complexities and constraints or whether the Government waters it down into some new pale iteration, Senator Black has managed to unify politicians from across the political spectrum, from Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett to Senator Michael McDowell, behind this campaign. In an era when politics is so polarised and when the left side of that spectrum has been fragmented for years, this is an outstanding achievement in moral and political leadership.
10 o’clock
The momentum of this campaign will continue until the legislation is passed and it will lead to more comprehensive boycotts of Israel.
We are six years on from the cynical obstruction of this Bill by Fine Gael through the money message technicality, to different stages of cynicism and dishonesty and political expediency since, which saw Fianna Fáil going from being champions of the Bill, introducing it to the Dáil in 2019, to turning its back on the Bill a year later under diplomatic pressure from America and Israel.
The Bill would be modest in its impact. In the words of Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, it would be a minimal act of concordance with international law. We know it would be momentous in being the first sanction of any kind imposed by a western country on trade with the illegal Israeli settlements. There is reason to believe it would set off a chain reaction of similar measures taken by other countries. By obstructing the passage of the occupied territories Bill into law, the Government has undermined our own democratic processes. This has happened at the same time as it warns, rightly, about Russian interference in European democracies.
We all know this Bill is legally sound. It has been deemed as such by a range of international experts and the aforementioned former Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Senator Michael McDowell. We know it was a charade to seek fresh legal advice in the lead-up the election on foot of enormous pressure from the public, and that pressure has risen again in the context of Gaza’s descent into hell. I put it to the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, that all will be forgiven if he does the right thing this time around and allows the Bill to progress, and for it to include services as well as goods. The Minister will outrage the Israeli Government either way so we may as well make this Bill substantive. If the Minister leads us down the garden path again, he will not be forgiven, either by the Irish people or by history. We understand the fears that come with passing this legislation. We appreciate the intensity of lobbying and the threats the Government is subject to, but we need to find our common humanity and assert our basic values in the face of a great evil being done to a trapped, terrorised and dispossessed people.
10:15 am
Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context
What is happening in Gaza right now is horrific and unjust. Israel's actions are disturbing, disgusting and criminal. We are witnessing an evil that is difficult to comprehend. While Israel is blocking the provision of aid and while food is being withheld, Gaza is on the brink of famine. We cannot continue business as normal when Israel is allowing children to starve. As a TD, my job is to be a messenger of the people. The message from the people could not be clearer. The people want the Government to do more, to speak louder, and to shout stop. Most importantly, the people want the Government to act. Every day I receive endless emails from people who are desperate and hopeless in the face of what they see as Government inaction.
Today I have five calls for the Government and five actions the Government can take. The first is to enact the occupied territories Bill. This must be done urgently and before the summer recess in July. The legislation must cover goods and services. There is no time to be wasted here. The Bill was first introduced in this House in 2018. We have been waiting years so act on that now. Second, we must continue to apply pressure at EU level for the full suspension of the EU-Israel association agreement for the violation of human rights clauses. A review alone is not enough. Third, we must end the use of Shannon Airport by the US military and stop the flow of weapons through Irish airspace. Ireland's official neutrality is meaningless while we facilitate military operations. Fourth, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, IHRA, definition of antisemitism must be removed from the programme for Government. We have to be clear that criticism of Israel is not antisemitism. Finally, which is the business of today's debate, we must enact legislation to stop the Central Bank facilitating the sale of Israel war bonds and have sanctions on Israel. We have to stand up against Israeli brutality. There is no justification for genocide. Equally, there is no justification for inaction in the face of genocide. Ireland must do more, the EU must do more, and the whole world must do more. This has to stop, Israel has to stop, and we have to make them stop. On behalf of the people I represent in Cork South-Central, I call on the Government to do more.
Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context
I thank Sinn Féin for bringing this Bill to the House. I refer to the legal opinion the party received. The Minister might have looked at it. It said there was a strong argument for putting forward this Private Members' Bill based on public policy. They see no difficulty in putting that forward based on public policy. "Public policy" is a phrase the Minister did not use. The Minister also did not refer to international law and did not use the word "genocide". I listened carefully to the Minister. He was very specific in the different things he said. The Minister told us these bonds were not listed on the Irish Stock Exchange and he talked about the absence of detail from Sinn Féin. The Minister then went on to give other specific technical reasons the Government cannot do this and why we can play Pontius Pilate and help the Central Bank to play Pontius Pilate and wash our hands of genocide.
Let me just look at what we are saying with these war bonds that are helping to carry out genocide in our name while we stand idly by. As the Minster knows well, since 2021, the Central Bank has a role in approving the issuing of the prospectus of these bonds following an analysis of the prospectus. This prospectus must be looked at by the Central Bank on the basis of the three Cs. We used to have the three Rs at school and now we have the three Cs. The bank looks at it from the completeness, consistency and comprehensibility points of view. They passed those three criteria and so the Central Bank is obliged, according to the Minister and the Central Bank, to give the thumbs up to war bonds. I believe this is absolute rubbish, to put it mildly. It is an utter failure to look at our obligations under Irish law, under international law, and under the Genocide Convention.
Let us look at Irish law in relation to the Central Bank. Section 5A of the Central Bank Reform Act says: "The Bank is required to perform its functions and exercise its powers in a manner consistent with the Rome Treaty and the ESCB Statute." Then there is the functioning of the Treaty of Rome, from which the Minister chose selectively. I will give the Minister another article. Article 3.5 in the consolidated version of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union says:
In its relations with the wider world, the Union shall uphold and promote its values and interests and contribute to the protection of its citizens. It shall contribute to peace, security, the sustainable development of the Earth [not just Europe], solidarity and mutual respect among peoples, free and fair trade, eradication of poverty and the protection of human rights, in particular the rights of the child [the children we see burning on our screens; an obligation to protect the rights of the child] as well as to the strict observance and the development of international law, including respect for the principles of the United Nations Charter.
The Minister did not quote any of that. The Minister did not quote any of the obligations on him as an individual, as a Minister in the Government, on me as an individual, and on the Central Bank and on the individuals in there to examine in a wider context and move out of the three Cs. It is an absolute insult to tell us they are restricted to looking at completeness, consistency and comprehension. Anybody that understands anything from the word "comprehension" it is to look at what is happening here.
To educate myself even further in this area, about which I did not know much until now, I went on the website to look at what Israel is telling us. Israel is telling us it is full of hope. On the website advertising its war bonds it says "We are filled with hope" and they want to "Invest in Life". Can you imagine that? It says "We are filled with hope" and they want to "Invest in Life", and that their returns are great and that there is a huge surge in interest in this. Then we look at the broader picture and they tell us the risks for those investors who are going to invest. In genocide the risks are the volatility. Can you imagine that Israel has the arrogance to tell us of the volatility in the Middle East, the volatility caused by Israel's genocidal campaign in Gaza and Palestine. They have that up as a risk factor as if they are not part of that problem themselves, such is their blindness, but I am wasting my time condemning Israel and its Government.
My effort is to get us to make language mean something. So, we recognise Palestine when there is almost nothing left to recognise. We failed to push the occupied territories Bill. We let troops and arms through Shannon, through the air and through the airport. We trade with Israel through Europe and we have done nothing. We stood idly by when Amnesty said Israel is operating an apartheid regime. Does the Minister know what his Government told us? It told us that is was uncomfortable with the word "apartheid" and that it did not really like that word. It failed to have a discussion in this House on Israel operating an apartheid regime.
We stood by when five human rights organisations were labelled as terrorists and their offices ransacked. We stood idly by when we saw starvation used as an appalling weapon of war and Palestinian people being pushed into ever-decreasing space and being told it is safe. We stood idly by as we watched a woman see nine of her ten children obliterated, killed and slaughtered. She is left with one child and a husband.
I could mention many more cases. I will not because it takes from the suffering of all of those who have died, and those who are alive but suffer, as we double-speak from both sides our mouth. Tadhg an dá thaobh comes to mind when I listen to what is coming from the other side of the House. Indeed, I paid tribute to one of the Government's backbenchers lately, who made the best speech in the Dáil on what Israel is actually up to. The Government might look at Deputy Colm Burke's speech in this House from a few days ago. It is one of the best speeches. I ask myself, how can he be a member of this Government that is standing idly by? I support this Bill and thank Sinn Féin.
10:25 am
Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context
I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. I commend Sinn Féin on bringing it forward and I strongly support it.
This Bill would be a vital first step in stopping the genocide and starvation of the Palestinian people. The Bill is fully compliant with international, European and Irish law, and is supported by the independent Office of Parliamentary Legal Advisers. Its legal opinion is supported by the leaked opinion of the Attorney General when he dealt with occupied territories Bill and the divestment Bill. The Bill is further underpinned by the International Court of Justice advisory opinion of July 2024 that Israel's continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territories is illegal. The Israeli bonds were established in 1951 to raise funds for the Israeli treasury, for use across the Israeli economy, and have long been used to support the apartheid system, the Israeli military and illegal settlements on Palestinian lands. These bonds directly fund the genocide that is currently being perpetrated against the Palestinian people in Gaza. Since October 2023, Israeli bonds have been explicitly marketed as war bonds, with the slogans "Israel is at war" and "Stand with Israel". The Central Bank of Ireland, by facilitating the sale of Israeli bonds, has contributed to the raising of almost $4.5 billion in Europe in the 16-month period from October 2023 to January 2025. Israel has raised roughly $12.5 billion globally through the sale of these bonds since Ireland became the designated home country in 2021.
In January 2024, 16 months ago, the International Court of Justice found that the Palestinian people in Gaza had "plausible rights" to be protected from the imminent risk of genocide. This ruling triggered obligations under the Genocide Convention for countries to take all possible action to prevent genocide. Passing this Bill complies with that ruling. In October 2024, the United Nations International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel found that Israel's actions in Gaza "constitute the war crimes of wilful killing and mistreatment ... and the crime against humanity of extermination". Our Government's inaction makes us complicit in genocide. It makes this State, this Government and the Irish people complicit in genocide and it is not good enough.
I accept and acknowledge what the Government has done to date, including supporting the South African case, the Taoiseach describing the blockade in Gaza as a "war crime" and various other statements but we must do more. We must take action. Words and statements are not good enough anymore. What is happening in Gaza is the ultimate appalling vista and it is a deliberate destruction of the Palestinian people by bomb, bullet and starvation. Today, 2.3 million Palestinians are facing starving. All reputable international organisations say that half a million of these Palestinians are facing catastrophic levels of hunger. Another million are facing emergency levels of hunger. The State of Israel and its defence forces are deliberately starving the Palestinian people. This country, due to our famine history and neutrality, has a unique moral authority and obligation to do whatever we can to stop the genocidal starvation of 2.3 million human beings in Gaza. We must take the actions that are open to us, one of which is the passing of this Bill. We should also stop all flights through Shannon, prosecute airlines for carrying armaments and weapons through Irish airspace - which has now been confirmed by the airlines themselves - and immediately pass the occupied territories Bill. Anything else makes this country complicit in genocide.
Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context
We talk about Gaza every week in this Chamber. It is right and proper that we do. One can get emotional about it because every time a child dies it is a harrowing experience, but one has to look at it in a more balanced way in terms of trying to get something done. That is what this Bill is attempting to do; it is trying to put pressure on the Irish Government to make the Central Bank of Ireland do something that the State and our European partners do not want us to do. I will get to this in a while, but sometimes, even if something is, in the Government's own view, not technically possible, that does not mean that it should not be tried to the point where it is proven to be technically impossible. I take on board some of what the Minister said earlier in terms of the barriers that may exist to this Bill being passed. I fundamentally disagree, however, with the Government not supporting the Bill being brought to Committee Stage and further Stages, where it could be amended to be workable within the existing parameters of European Union law or ready to be enacted at such a point when the European Union does so decide. At least we would have an Act ready to go.
The figures keep adding up. As of today, 56,000 people have been killed, comprising more than 54,000 Palestinians and 1,706 Israelis, many of them civilians, since this phase of this never-ending conflict commenced on October 7 2023. In terms of civilian deaths, the estimates from independent sources such as journalists, academics and various sources are that 80% of those killed on the Palestinian side were civilians. Then there are the employees of UNRWA and other humanitarian aid workers. A couple of Irish diplomats were nearly killed recently. The UN Commissioner for Human Rights said 80% of Palestinians killed were civilians and added that 70% of the Palestinians killed in residential buildings or similar types of housing were woman and children. They were not combatants or proxy fighters who volunteered for the cause to stand alongside Hamas militants just so the Israelis could bomb them; they were innocent civilians.
As I have said before, we have long since passed the threshold of genocide. I described it in my last contribution, and I am standing by my words, as another holocaust because it is, as I said, a sanitised, mass extermination over a period. Sometimes, the information can be slightly wrong. In my previous speech I mentioned that up to 14,000 babies were at risk of being killed, many of them within the next 48 hours.
I had read the conflicting reports regarding the figures. Tom Fletcher, though, did get a lot of criticism because he said they were all going to die imminently. The Israelis jumped on this and said it was fake news and a lie. It was not a lie but the correction of information that said there would be about 70,000 cases of acute malnutrition of children aged six months to 59 months between April 2025 and March 2026, including 14,100 severe cases, and a severe case is at risk of dying at any stage. Although Mr. Fletcher was not absolutely accurate in terms of the 48 hours, the lives of those 14,000 babies are still at risk, as one of my colleagues mentioned in this Chamber earlier. The Israeli Government - or regime, call it what you will, because it is democratically elected but is certainly not living up to the aspirations of any rational democracy - jumps on this. It paints the Irish as the biggest Jew haters in Europe if not the world. The facts, however, are that since the establishment of the Israel State, the Irish people have been among some of the greatest supporters of Israel until it turned into a pariah state.
I point out that there is a need for balance and I always feel obliged to put it on the record when I am talking that we must look at different angles from different sides. Yes, therefore, Hamas is a fundamentalist terrorist organisation that has killed people for being LGTB, for example, and wants to see the Israeli people and the entire Israeli State destroyed. I and others have no truck with regimes like Hamas. Equally, though, there are fundamentalist settlers in the West Bank. The Israeli State has facilitated them in planting themselves in different parts of the West Bank in such a way that makes the Palestinian State, consisting of the West Bank joined with Gaza, in a two-state solution more and more unviable. It is doing that because of its fundamentalist religious beliefs. It is religious fundamentalists who hold the strings of the Israeli Government.
Equally, we have our own fundamentalists. I remember back in the times of the Troubles in the North where we had republicans and loyalists using proxy bombs. They would get individuals by threatening their families with death and strap them to a van with explosives in it, usually to try to blow up British soldiers. They said that was a legitimate cause. The loyalist side had other legitimate causes, such as an attempt on the life of a garda, for example. This was all done in the belief that their supreme cause was worth taking innocent lives. That type of fundamentalism did eventually evolve into the Irish peace process, and credit is due to all those involved, including Sinn Féin, whose members proposed this Bill. The peace process in Ireland highlighted that there were differing views, some of which may never be totally reconciled. The people involved, though, did come to an accommodation. It was similar with the South African peace and reconciliation process, where different sides had to come to an accommodation. As referred to, it was also similar in Rwanda.
I am talking about all this because this war, this conflict, which has now morphed into this genocide on the Israeli side, is never-ending. It will only stop when the fundamentalists on both sides realise that it is a zero-sum game and that all they are going to do is to keep killing, whatever about claims from anyone that their argument may be purer than somebody else's. It is a fact, as I said before, that more Palestinians than Israelis have been killed throughout the lifetime of this conflict, which has now almost lasted a century. Any life, though, is a precious one. This is why I will always condemn the attacks of 7 October, I will always say I love the Israeli people and I recognise the right of the Israeli State to exist. Jesus, though, as well as loving the Palestinians, we have to feel for them. We have to do everything in our power as a State because this is a moral obligation.
Going back to what the Minister said about the Bill, the Central Bank of Ireland was recently quoted as saying it approving a bond prospectus does not endorse the issuer or the securities, that it is just a little technicality. I forget which speaker - it might have been Deputy Nash, but I am not 100% certain - mentioned Israel designating us as a home country. Perhaps this is because we are English-speaking - chomh maith lenár dteanga dhúchais eile, an Ghaeilge - or maybe it is because Israel wanted to see us squirm as a designated country given that we had called them out before. Either way, we have gone from being seen as a home financial base of choice for the sale of bonds to one of the biggest anti-Israeli countries in Europe. We are not anti-Israel, but we are anti-Israeli policy and anti-Israeli massacring of innocent civilians.
In this context, why can the Minister not facilitate this Bill moving to Committee Stage? Why can it not be moved even further onwards and passed, with a provision inserted that everything would be subject to the European Union making that decision? This would send out a strong and powerful message that we are good to go when it is legally and technically possible to enact the legislation. If the Government truly believes the Bill cannot be enacted, at least bring it to that point. It must be remembered that we also have a President who can agree or disagree with the advice of the Attorney General and the Council of State and decide whether legislation passed is legitimate. For all his righteous condemnation of Israeli atrocities over the years, the one thing President Higgins upholds more than anything else is our Constitution and the rule of law. I have absolutely no doubt that the President and his advisers, if asked, would make the right decision and the right call on this matter.
We should not end this legislation prematurely. We should let it go through. Let us have the debate, amend the Bill as best the Government can see fit and then have it ready to be enacted if necessary and possible. To do otherwise does, unfortunately, lend credence to the view that for all its praise in terms of the Court of Justice and the fact that the Israeli Government continues to criticise our Government - I see the Ambassador has left here - we are still giving the impression we are a little bit of a paper tiger. We are talking about the action of the Central Bank of Ireland on behalf of the European Union. We have a little bit of clout. Let us see how far we can push it. This is why I commend this Bill. I am not a legal expert in terms of whether it is fully enforceable, but I commend it. Let us see where it goes. Is there any reason the Minister cannot do that? Go raibh maith agat.
10:35 am
Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context
I am glad to get the opportunity to talk about this matter here again this evening. It is a terrible situation. This war really needs to end. I do not know how we can influence that happening, but we need to send a strong message from this Parliament. We are a very small country. We cannot do anything physically to stop or prevent the war, but we need to send a strong message that we do not approve of what is happening now. It is very well reported. We see evening after evening little children holding out bowls to see if someone will throw something into them so they can eat. It is tough. No one has a monopoly on talking about this situation. It resonates very much with me to hear and see people starving to death. There have been explosions, atrocities, bombings and every bad thing you could think of happening there. It is the starving of people and the starving of children. The country and the world is full of food. How much food does every household throw out every evening or at the end of every week? How much food is thrown into waste? To think there are little children out there starving.
We still talk about the Famine in rural places because we are reminded daily of it. I do not know if the Minister is aware of it, but there are many fields up on the hillsides and slopes where the ridges still remain marking where people put their gardens. They did not stay alive or there was nothing in them to dig out.
They finished up on the Famine ships going to America and other places basically to get something to eat. I can remember being brought up and being told by my grandparents and granduncles that the thing that they really worked for daily - there was no such thing as money - was food. Even my own father as a 14-, 15- and maybe 17-year-old went around working on meithleacha in different places. There was no money but he got fed and there was one less to be fed at the table at home. That is what people had to work for at that time to stay alive.
I was told recently - the man who told me has since passed on - that there was a big strong man in the Kilgarvan parish and he did not have enough to eat. At most times of the day when people would meet him, he was chewing his wrist and chewing his arm because he was half-starved with the hunger; he needed a lot more to eat than he was getting. Those kinds of messages resonate and never leave my mind. It is terrible when we look at the television and see children holding out bowls and nothing going into them. I am not saying the Government here is at fault for it but we could send some message. I do not know what notice they will take of this occupied territories Bill, but we need to send them a message.
Europe is very lax has been very slow to react since the start. Von der Leyen is not decisive enough and is not acting to the extent that she could and we are disappointed with that. I am asking that the Opposition and the Government work together here and to send this message together as strongly as possible to the Israelis.
Of course, Hamas played its part in this atrocity in starting it off. I look at it from every angle, including from the angle that because Hamas will not release the last of the hostages, the Israelis will not stop the war. Have they no feeling at all for little children who are starving? They must be blamed as well. Whatever side is right, there is no right or wrong in this war now; it has to stop. We should be clear and decisive in saying that it needs to stop.
I do not know what is in the occupied territories Bill. I will vote for any Bill relating to this to send a message of some sort to all those involved that it must stop. We are disappointed that the USA which over the years has been fair, does not seem to be intervening to stop it. I am not saying that we should say clearly who is wrong or who is right, but it needs to be stopped for the sake of the little children who are starving. They should have their entire lives in front of them and it is so sad that they will not realise their potential. I feel very strongly about it when people are starving. The worst kind of death of all is to see people starving. We are not to blame for it. We are only a small country but we must voice our opinion and ask them to stop.
10:45 am
Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context
I thank all the Deputies who contributed to the debate this evening with compassion and empathy. That is shared by Deputies on all sides of this House. All of us are appalled and horrified by what is happening in Gaza. I address the Dáil, fully aware of the deep sensitivity surrounding the plight of the Palestinian people. I strongly and utterly condemn the continuing Israeli military operations in Gaza. I use the word "genocide" because this has brought untold suffering on the people of Gaza. Israel's plans to expand its military operation in Gaza and establish its prolonged presence are beyond alarming and will further compound an already catastrophic situation.
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza remains to the forefront of our minds. I hold a deep respect for the principles at the heart of this Bill, our collective commitment to human rights and international law. This is the value I believe we all share in this House. The only issue that remains is how we can best act to make a real difference. As I said, we are all appalled by what is happening. My only question is how the Government can act in a way that is effective. I believe the Bill is well intentioned but we must carefully and with consideration assess the effectiveness of the Bill. What will it achieve? The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, has done this. The advice received by the Government indicates the Bill will not achieve what it intends to do. When it cannot achieve its objectives, that serves nobody in the end.
I reiterate that the objective of the Bill before us as outlined by Deputy Doherty, is to end the sale of Israeli bonds across the EU. Israeli bonds are not for sale on our Stock Exchange or through any trading company we in Ireland regulate. The Bill would not impose any restrictions on the ability of the Central Bank to approve a prospectus from Israel. That is the crux of the matter because it is crucial to remember that the prospectus regulation is EU law and Ireland cannot unilaterally amend or undermine that law. As Deputy Nash explained, approval of the prospectus only requires that it complies with EU law. There is no question of the Central Bank facilitating in any way the sale of bonds.
As Deputies are aware, Ireland is a committed proponent of multilateral action. We do not have a domestic sanctions regime. We implement EU and UN sanctions. When we address complex international issues, it is essential that any measures introduced be negotiated, agreed and introduced at EU or UN level. The collective power of the EU is best placed to promote the objectives of the bloc's Common Foreign and Security Policy and to bring about a change in the policy or behaviour of the subject of the measures. Any attempt to act unilaterally on matters as sensitive and complex as financial restrictions could undermine the coalition we are trying to see form at EU level. To me this is really important. Ireland has been painstakingly involved in helping to build this coalition. In this context, we need to prioritise co-ordinated action through the EU and UN.
The Bill does not focus on the actions of Israel as a state. Instead it seeks to criminalise those who sell and purchase the securities themselves, as well as entities that facilitate the sale and purchase of the bonds. This raises a number of issues. First, there is the question of extraterritoriality. The Bill, as drafted, aims to prohibit all sales and purchases of Israeli Government securities caught by regulations without reference as to how the transaction would need to be connected to Ireland for an offence to have occurred. While I have likened the measures proposed in the Bill to domestic sanctions, it is important to note some difference. Restrictive measures whether at EU or UN level are designed to be temporary and targeted in nature, and critically respect the fundamental rights of individuals and entities.
It is clear that this approach has not been taken in the Bill before us.
Section 3 of the proposed legislation requires the Minister to make a determination on how moneys raised by Israel from "a particular security or class of securities" are applied. From a regulatory point of view, the EU prospectus regulation does require a use of proceeds disclosure. However, it would be possible for an issuer to arrange an issuance of securities with a use of proceeds that excludes these purposes by, for example, issuing a green bond. Therefore, in terms of trying to restrict Israel's ability to raise funding to support an action in the occupied territories Bill, this Bill completely overlooks the fungibility of such financing. That leaves loopholes in this Bill.
10:55 am
Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
They are selling war bonds. They are not even hiding it.
Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
That is a nonsense argument.
Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context
It is a real argument-----
Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
They are selling war bonds. They are advertising them as that. They are not selling green bonds. They are not planting trees. They are killing children.
Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context
Shouting at me will not-----
Keira Keogh (Mayo, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
The Deputy will have his moment.
Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context
If the Deputy wants to make his argument, he should make it on his own time.
Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
With respect, it is a stupid argument you are making, in fairness.
Keira Keogh (Mayo, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
Deputy Doherty, you will have your time.
Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context
What I have spoken about are not legal abstractions; they fundamentally undermine the effectiveness of this Bill. The Deputy and I know that if legislation means anything, it must be effective. Ireland's long-standing support for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict remains an integral part of our foreign policy. Personally, I am pleased to say that from my very first days in the European Parliament, that has been my own stance. The Government is working to build consensus at EU and international level to support the implementation of a negotiated two-state solution and lasting peace process. We condemn in the strongest possible terms the continuing Israeli military operations in Gaza. We support the review of the EU-Israeli association agreement, and we welcome what has happened in recent days. In fact, Ireland pushed for this. I can personally say that back in November 2023, when nobody in this Parliament was speaking about it, I personally wrote to the European Commission on a number of occasions to raise this issue. When I received no response, I worked through some of the MEPs in the Parliament. Ireland intervened in South Africa's International Court of Justice case against Israel under the Genocide Convention and, of course, we recognise Palestine as a sovereign and independent state. It is very clear that the Government is committed to speaking out on behalf of the Palestinian people.
This morning, the Tánaiste brought a memorandum to the Cabinet requesting Government approval for the preparation of a generous scheme of a Bill to prohibit imports from illegal settlements in the occupied territory. As the Taoiseach said after Cabinet, we are all equally appalled and sickened by what is happening in Gaza, and the Government has decided to approve bringing forward this important legislation.
I will say, finally, that we are not standing idly by.
Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context
We are taking action, as already outlined-----
Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context
-----and we are progressing the occupied territories Bill. Just because we raise issues with the legislation here this evening-----
Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context
-----does not mean we do not care; we do. We are acting in every way we can.
Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context
We believe that this legislation, however well intentioned, will not achieve its objective. That is what matters. People have talked about fine words.
Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context
Fine words from any side of the House do not work. What works is legislation that is effective.
Keira Keogh (Mayo, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
We now return to Sinn Féin to close the debate.
Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin (Wicklow-Wexford, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
Some years ago, I was fortunate enough to stay with the lovely people of Gaza. It is a tiny place just one third the size of County Dublin or one quarter the size of my constituency of Wicklow–Wexford. It now has 2.2 million people, mostly children, who are corralled into what is, in effect, a concentration camp. We see emaciated, corpse-like children deliberately being starved and sometimes incinerated. Irish people, of course, naturally despair and feel helpless and powerless in the face of a Cromwellian-style scorched earth campaign, which has seen a level of depravity and bloodlust not previously witnessed by any of us. It is literally a holocaust that is being livestreamed into the palms of our hands.
Israel, with super-advanced firepower, is breaking every single international law yet is rewarded, funded, armed and given cover by the wealthy and powerful of the western world, including the Irish Government. Last week, a hospital doctor was dropped to work by her husband only to receive the incinerated corpses of nine of her ten children shortly afterwards. We see babies shot through the head with precision sniper fire and soldiers boasting about it on social media. Sadly, Ireland has been complicit in this apocalypse as Ireland funds this genocide by selling war bonds. The Irish Central Bank is the bank that gives them permission to sell the bonds across the EU. It is shameful that the Irish Central Bank and the Government ever allowed this to happen. However, we can redeem ourselves. We can make amends for this blood money. A little country like ours can, in fact, make a big difference because we have the power to pull the plug on the Israeli war bonds across the whole of the EU.
If the Government's words on the genocide in Gaza are to mean anything, the Government will support this Bill. It is drafted by Oireachtas legal experts. The Government should not wriggle out of this with weasel words. I implore it to do the right thing and be on the right side of history.
Donna McGettigan (Clare, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
Through the Central Bank, this State is complicit in Israel's genocide and apartheid. Its role in the funding of the most unspeakable crimes must end immediately. This Bill is legally sound and independently drafted. What does breach international law is Israel's brutal occupation of Palestine. It is burning children alive, starving entire communities and killing civilians with impunity. Despite multiple UN reports affirming that Israel is committing genocidal acts, the issuing of arrest warrants for senior Israeli Government officials, a separate ICJ ruling that Israel's occupation of Palestine is entirely illegal and the deaths of tens of thousands of people, including children in Gaza, the Central Bank of Ireland continues to act as Israel's sales agency in the EU.
The world has watched the genocide unfold every day. Bombs are being dropped on homes, hospitals, schools, shelters and aid centres. Aid workers with international agencies are targeted and murdered. We were horrified when babies in Al-Nasr hospital were left to die and decompose after hospital staff were forced out at gunpoint. This is unthinkable. The Irish public stand overwhelmingly with the Palestinian people. They march, protest and promote the BDS campaign in huge numbers. They are disgusted by this complicity with the Israeli regime. The Government and the previous one are and have been strong in rhetoric, but we need action. We must do everything in our power to save the people of Gaza from genocide. We must take a stand for international law, and we must uphold basic humanity and decency. In the words of ambassador Majed Bamya:
The whole world chants for Gaza, weeps for Gaza, aches for Gaza, is outraged by what is happening in Gaza. But the people in Gaza, the children of Gaza, have no use for our chants, our tears and our outrage if they are not accompanied by actions that could actually stop the killing, feed the hungry, heal the wounded, save those who can still be saved.
When future generations ask, "What did you do when the people of Gaza were massacred?", what will you tell them? Will you say that on this day you refused to help them, or that you finally acted?
Louis O'Hara (Galway East, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
The Palestinian people have been subjected to starvation, occupation, dispossession and genocide at the hands of Israel. This is ethnic cleansing and a human tragedy of unimaginable scale. Israel has shown no restraint in its onslaught on the Palestinian people, and the Irish Central Bank is supporting this violence by facilitating the sale of Israeli war bonds.
The Government has said it will do everything in its power to stop this genocide, but the reality is that we are complicit in this genocide for as long as Israeli arms shipments are allowed to pass through our airspace, as long as the Government continues to delay and attempt to water down the occupied territories Bill and the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill and while our Central Bank continues to facilitate the sale of Israeli war bonds.
We have a legal and moral obligation to act, and that is why the response from Government to this Bill has been appalling. It is patting itself on the back for its delayed and limited actions, while giving excuses as to why it cannot stop the facilitation of these bonds and the funding of this genocide. The Government has deliberately misrepresented what this is about. These bonds have to be approved by a European central bank and it is the Irish Central Bank that fulfils that role. No other central bank provides that permission. Shame on the Government for trying to mislead people and its failure to once again show real leadership in standing up for the people of Palestine.
The situation in Gaza and the need for action could not be any more urgent. How can the Government sit on its hands and block legislation that would meaningfully undermine Israel's ability to fund its campaign of genocide? Hiding behind utterly false legal excuses is cowardly. The time for empty rhetoric has well passed. I call on the Government as a whole to use its conscience and the power it has and end the funding of this genocide.
11:05 am
Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
I begin by thanking all of the speakers who supported the Bill. It was refreshing and great to see the combined Opposition come out and support the Bill.
The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, made one of the most shameful speeches I have heard in all of my time in the Dáil. That speech will come back to haunt him. It was full of nonsense, to tell him the God's honest truth, in the face of genocide. It argued stuff that was inconsistent. For example, he said Article 215 of the EU treaty precludes individual member states from issuing their own restrictive measures. It does not state that. Does the Minister want me to read Article 215 of the European treaty for him? It does not state that. It is simply not true.
Another Minister said Israel could issue green bonds as if it is planting trees or watercourses in Gaza. It is bombing children. Children are being burned alive and the Government is talking about green bonds. Israel is promoting these as war bonds. It is asking people to join the war effort, the genocide. The Bill prevents our Central Bank from approving the prospectus. When it approves the prospectus, that means Israel can passport into other European countries. That is how the Bill would have an effect in other European countries. It would be up to Israel to apply for another home country if it wanted to do that. That member state would have to ask whether it wanted to stand up and be counted.
The Government has made a decision today. There have been weasel words and no action. It is not acceptable. The Bill was not drafted by me. Every time the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, tries to throw insults around to the effect that it is badly drafted and not constitutional, he should remember that it is the staff of the Oireachtas, namely, the Office of Parliamentary Legal Advisers, which drafted the Bill. We got a legal opinion from the office which stated that the Bill was constitutionally compliant, compliant with EU law and in accordance with international law.
I note in his speech the Minister did not state the Bill was not compliant with the Constitution or EU or international law. Rather, his speech stated that it is thought that such measures would be judged in that manner. When he delivered his speech, he said it was advised that that is the case. He also referred to something not having a material impact. There is no clear legal advice that the Bill is not compatible with the relevant law. We have the legal advice. It comes from the Houses of the Oireachtas.
The legal advice is also consistent with the leaked advice of the Attorney General because a public policy exemption exists in EU law, and the Minister knows that. He argued the same thing with the occupied territories Bill seven bloody years ago. The Government has used the exact same arguments and referred to the term "extraterritorial". That argument was used seven years ago. The Government tried to use the term "unconstitutional" as well.
There is a public policy exemption. The Central Bank, in a letter to me and the finance committee, made it very clear that the only way it can refuse the approval of a prospectus is in one of three ways, namely, that the disclosures in the prospectus are insufficient or there are EU financial sanctions or national restrictive measures to the same effect. Why would the Central Bank suggest national restricted measures if it was not compatible with EU law? The Bill is compatible with EU law. How do we know this? We know that there is case law in Europe on this.
The treaties are very clear. One of the four fundamental freedoms in the European Union is the freedom of capital. Section 65(1)(B) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union places restrictions on that and states that that can be restricted on the basis of policy grounds. There are examples of what that would mean.
I hope the Government is glad I have dissected its counterargument. This is not about a to-and-fro here. Usually this would go to Committee Stage and these issues would be teased out. The Government is making sure the Bill never even gets another look. I believe the Minister is doing that in order to be the best boy in the class for Europe.
I said earlier that tonight is the night that we stand up on behalf of all of our constituents and all of the people across Ireland who want to see us do everything in our power in the face of genocide. Tonight is the night we say that no more money is going to be raised in this country for the sale of war bonds. Tonight is the night that every single person will be asked to vote to support the funding of genocide, which is what is happening by the sale of these war bonds, or stand with their constituents and the people of Gaza and on the right side of history and support the Bill.
Keira Keogh (Mayo, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
In accordance with Standing Order 85(2), the division is postponed until the weekly division time on Wednesday, 28 May 2025.
Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context
Shame on the Government. Disgraceful. It would not even let it go to Committee Stage. So much for the weasel words. There is no point in the Minister standing there and saying we will do everything for the people of Gaza. It is disgraceful.