Results 21-40 of 6,374 for speaker:Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: The position of the Government on the previous legislation - I know we are discussing the current legislation - hung very significantly on the International Court of Justice decision. Is that not fair to say?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: Would Mr. Smyth agree that the judgment of the International Court of Justice is binding on Ireland individually as well as on the EU?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: Those are obligations on individual states as well as on the EU as a whole. Is that fair to say?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: Sure, but the International Court of Justice's view would be that the obligation falls on the member state as well as any associations they-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: Okay. There is this issue of reconciling international law and EU law and it seems to me that the position of the Department is that international law needs to be reconciled to the international law position rather than the reverse. The Attorney General, as I understand it, received in advance of that legal opinion some detailed legal opinion from Professors Takis Tridimas and Panos...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: I am not asking Mr. Smyth to do that. Did he consider the advice that was received by the Attorney General, which, I believe, was also received by the Department? Did he consider that advice, the legal opinion, offered by those two legal academics?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: Okay, but that relates to previous legislation. On this legislation, the Department has offered a legal basis for proceeding in one area and not proceeding in another one. We do not have the Attorney General's position but Mr. Smyth has offered a legal position on behalf of the Department, at least in some sort of interim way. In coming to that position, which he has articulated here,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: The position of the two professors, as outlined, is that the public policy obligation would apply equally to services and goods. Does Mr. Smyth take issue with the argument they make?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: It seems to me that this flows to the logical conclusion that somebody will potentially take infringement proceedings, as people can do in respect of any legislation. That is the position that applies. I know it is said sometimes that we risk infringement proceedings but anyone can take infringement proceedings provided it is non-trivial. The defence of the Irish Government to infringement...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: I will let Mr. Smyth in in a second. The defence would be relying on the same judgment, and the judgment makes no distinction between goods and services. It is very clear that such trade, as far as the court is concerned, is illegal under international law. The defence would be precisely the same. Why would it be good enough for one and not good enough for the other?

Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025 : Discussion (Resumed) (26 Jun 2025)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: I thank the Chair. I thank our guests for their time and expertise. We have a serious issue in the neglect of our Defences Forces in personnel and equipment. That needs to be addressed. As answered by Professor Tonra, there is nothing to prevent that except political will. That has been an issue in recent times in the previous two or three governments. I direct my first question to Mr....

Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025 : Discussion (Resumed) (26 Jun 2025)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: I thank Mr. Noonan for clarifying that. I was very interested in the points made by Professor Tonra. He has made the point regarding safeguards and that is quite interesting. Does he agree that Irish neutrality is desirable?

Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025 : Discussion (Resumed) (26 Jun 2025)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: A previous speaker, a similarly eminent academic, made a point about it being questionable whether it did exist or not. Whether it is or it is not, does Professor Tonra believe, speaking frankly, that Irish neutrality is respected in the EU? Senior politicians come in here frequently and say Irish neutrality is respected. I would question that. I know Mr. Murphy said that High...

Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025 : Discussion (Resumed) (26 Jun 2025)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: That is my sense of it as well. It comes back to what Mr. Noonan said regarding lawyers moving into absences. We are potentially removing the guardrails and entering into a very wide sphere using narrow exceptions to justify legislation that already the Department of Defence has told us that-----

Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025 : Discussion (Resumed) (26 Jun 2025)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: I will finish on that but I am minded to say that a very clear trend is that people right across the spectrum hold the view that the legislation does not currently contain enough safeguards. Does Professor Tonra think that is fair to say?

Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025 : Discussion (Resumed) (26 Jun 2025)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: I may try to get in again.

Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025 : Discussion (Resumed) (26 Jun 2025)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: I apologise to Mr. Noonan but I am conscious of my time and I have another question. I will put it more directly. He does believe that potentially constitutional issues arise.

Legislative and Structural Reforms to Accelerate Housing Delivery: Motion [Private Members] (25 Jun 2025)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: I will echo the points made by other Deputies because the Minister of State, like his ministerial colleagues, has come in here and talked about the need for the Opposition to bring forward solutions. I understand Ministers and Ministers of State need to put forward their narrative, but in truth they realise there is plenty of substance and detail. The Taoiseach loves that word; he loves to...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 27 - International Co-operation (Revised)
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (Revised) (24 Jun 2025)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: I wish to be associated with the remarks on the passport service, which is an excellent service that has gone from strength to strength, as well as with the remarks on our diplomatic staff. The experience of diplomatic staff in Tehran and Tel Aviv in recent days and the incident in the West Bank some weeks ago reflects the fact that serving Ireland internationally on a diplomatic level is...