Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)
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88. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the current progress of the drafting of the Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025. [57184/25]

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)
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Like many others in the House, I welcome the fact that a peace plan has taken some form. I am very concerned about the fragility of it. Dozens of people have been killed even since the ceasefire. As the Tánaiste noted, extra-judicial killings are to be condemned as well, so undoubtedly the peace is very fragile. As with any peace, a ceasefire is only part of it. A political solution needs to be a part of it too and part of that needs to be ensuring the application of international law. Therefore, it should remain the position of the Irish Government that in the occupied territories, the illegal settlements need to be treated as illegal and the occupied territories Bill needs to give effect to that.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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That remains my position and that of the Government. I think it is objectively fair to say, and there is not much disagreement on this across the House, that the immediate focus has been on the humanitarian aid and supporting the peace plan, on seeing the ceasefire and the hostages being released and looking at practical ways that we can help. International law remains international law and breaches of international law remain breaches of international law. The commitment in the programme for Government on the occupied Palestinian territories remains consistent. In June, as the Deputy knows, the Government approved the general scheme of the Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory (prohibition of importation of goods) Bill. The main purpose of the Bill is to prohibit the trade into the State from Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.

The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade held a number of hearings on the general scheme and received submissions representing a range of views and perspectives. I see the Chairman of the committee, Deputy Lahart, is here and I thank him for his work. Pre-legislative scrutiny is an important part of the legislative process. Detailed work to analyse the report and recommendations is well under way, with a view to getting the best and most robust legislation. The next steps in the process, including the timeline for the progress of the Bill will be considered by Government shortly. I think I gave an indication about the timeline during the debate in the House on the flotilla.

Notwithstanding the positive and welcome recent developments regarding the ceasefire and the hostage release deal in Gaza, Deputy Ó Laoghaire is right that it is extraordinarily fragile. We need to keep all of our options very much there. Now is not the time to remove such actions and we have made that view very clear at an EU level as well. It is still our intention to proceed as planned.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)
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What is planned is perhaps not crystal clear to those of us on this side of the House at this point. I think many people would have been concerned by the Taoiseach's comments last week that seemed to suggest that it was simply not practical to ban services. A number of questions arise in relation to that. The Tánaiste has said in the past that there is no difference between the Government and the Opposition in relation to policy on this. Much of what the Taoiseach seemed to flag were differences of policy in relation to implications and so on, rather than legal issues. Regarding the practicality of the legal issues, it is the case that the sanctions that were placed against Russia and Russian occupied parts of Ukraine, did include a ban on services. While I appreciate that this came a European initiative, ultimately, the practical effect of it within this jurisdiction is the same. It implies the same obligation and burden on companies to ensure due diligence and the same obligations on the Tánaiste's Department to ensure it also. What is the difference between the situation there and the situation in Palestine?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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My position remains the same as I outlined in this House many times. Of course, I am going to discuss and engage with Government colleagues on this and the Government will obviously make its decision as a collective and present its legislation to the Oireachtas. I will dutifully debate that back and forth in this House. I need to allow that process to take its course. I have respect for the way the Government makes decisions.

While I reiterate my commitment to the legislation, I also remind people why we talked about the legislation in the first place - certainly why I did. I talked about using all the levers at our disposal to bring about a ceasefire. There is now a ceasefire. The ceasefire is very fragile. At EU level, I spoke about using all the levers at our disposal to help change the calculus, get Netanyahu to a ceasefire and end the genocide. We now have that fragile ceasefire but it is fragile, and as people have referenced, there have been incursions and moments of significant concern, even in the past few days. Therefore, it is right and proper that we are dynamic in how we continue to respond to this situation, but we now have aid flowing into Gaza, we have a peace plan that needs to be pursued, we have the hostages back in the arms of their loved ones, and we have the remains of deceased hostages being released and the rest need to be. We also need to get on to the very thorny and tricky issue of how one governs and reconstruct Gaza and bring about a two-state solution.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)
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That does not necessarily make it any clearer as to what exactly will be in this Bill. Ireland is not a major country in the grand scheme of these things. It is about using what levers are at our disposal. There have been a number of levers and recognition was important. This is important. Had we not had this debate over the past number of years about this, it would not have ended up being discussed in so many other jurisdictions, including in the options paper at European Commission level, so it is important. It is also important that the example being set by Ireland and potentially being followed by others, although others have now taken further initiatives, is strong. There is no legal reason not to include services. There is no moral reason. It is already the position of this Government that people should not trade with the occupied territories. What this Bill proposes to do is make that a criminal offence. I think this is right. It should be a criminal offence with regard to goods and it is not more morally acceptable for somebody to trade in services with the occupied territories, so it is the morally correct thing to do to ensure that there is a legal ban on that and that is a criminal offence. No reason has been produced as yet to say why it is any different in terms of services or why that is more legally challenging.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I agree that just because we are a small country is not a reason not to do something. More and more over recent years in the European Union, many coalitions of small and medium-sized countries have come together to work on issues and that has helped move the dial at European level and sometimes at an international level. Recognition was one, as was the fact that we went from being one of only two countries to seek a review of the association agreement to getting to 17 and then 19 was another, along with the fact that we were in a minority view that there should be actions taken on foot of that to that now being in my opinion a majority view. Whether it is a qualified majority remains to be tested. What we have been doing here in this Oireachtas on behalf of the people of Ireland has had an impact at European level.

I want to be respectful to the process we must go through in government. People know and understand that. I have outlined to the House what the Government will do. We have the pre-legislative report of the Oireachtas committee and will be considering our next steps. We will decide on that shortly and I will update the House.