Results 101-120 of 6,465 for speaker:Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: Am I correct though that the 12 does not apply if it is not part of an international force? The 12 applies to the deployment in the context of international forces. Head 7 refers to deployments other than in international forces. That would apply in humanitarian evacuation and drug interdiction so the number of 12 should not apply in these instances.

Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: Apologies. I had not been expecting to get another opportunity. I wonder are we conflating two different parts of the proposed legislation and that in the past, perhaps because of issues with drafting of legislation, missions have been prevented by reasons other than by triple lock.

Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: I thank our witnesses. They have been insightful. I would like to clarify something. There was an exchange between Senator Clonan and Mr. Brennan about the 50-member limit and why it exists at all. The legislation as it is framed has two different categories to be conscious of. There were always two different categories-----

Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: -----in legal terms under the Defence Act. I forget the phrase, but the legislation referred to international forces.

Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: There were deployments on international missions and deployments other than those. That is what is anticipated in this legislation. For that first category, there was a limit of 12 that will now be increased to 50. For the second category, which has now been clarified, and that is welcome, in respect of drug interdiction, humanitarian evacuation and so on, the limit of 12 did not exist and...

Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: I am coming to the question. There did still seem to be some difficulty and I do not understand what it was. The Department of Defence officials told us that the triple lock did not prevent those deployments. What did, other than resources? What legal obstacles existed? The Department of Defence is saying that the triple lock was not the issue.

Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: Could that be considered fruitfully by this committee in the context of legislation?

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 appreciate the witnesses giving their time to be here. We received the statements in advance with regard to this particular issue. The issue of goods and services has been a subject of public debate for six or seven months now. It has been longer than that really, but I mean in an intense way. We are only now fleshing out, as we are in this meeting, what the issue is with regard to...

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: Yes.

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: Yes.

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?