Results 261-280 of 423 for speaker:Duncan Smith

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

Duncan Smith: Indeed.

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

Duncan Smith: The assembly will not have the authority. It is not about being mature or immature. Everyone on this committee, whether they are for or against the triple lock, understands the changing nature of international security. My concern is the United Nations is very weak at present. This panel has huge experience, more than anyone here, in dealing with the United Nations, both operationally and...

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

Duncan Smith: It would not be legally binding but just for us in this building, it is something for us to latch on to. It would be a triple lock.

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

Duncan Smith: The non-member has been here a long time.

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

Duncan Smith: Would Ireland bring a motion forward saying we want to support, let us say, the EU-led peacekeeping mission to Ukraine? If we brought a motion to the General Assembly and it is passed there, at least that would give us an assent. We could pass it in the General Assembly-----

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)

Duncan Smith: I wish to pick up on Mr. Smyth's last point. Has the Department provided an opinion to the Attorney General on services? Has it provided its own internal departmental legal advice to the Attorney General for him to make his own opinion on or to feed into those deliberations?

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)

Duncan Smith: The ICJ advisory ruling of last year certainly precipitated a shift in how the previous and current Governments have dealt with this issue. Last July, the ICJ found that states were under an obligation to prevent trade with the settlements. In September, Ireland co-sponsored a resolution at the UN General Assembly that recognised this obligation and that was passed. Does Mr. Smyth accept...

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)

Duncan Smith: Would Mr. Smyth accept that the heads of Bill may not be fully compliant with the obligations to prevent trade as per the ICJ ruling?

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)

Duncan Smith: I thank Mr. Smyth and I might turn to Mr. Keown. In answering my previous question, Mr. Smyth mentioned that the Government believed this was the more defensible way to move forward. While it may say that decision is based on legal advice, is this more of a political decision to go this way? Is it something that the political division of the Department of foreign affairs has fed into in...

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)

Duncan Smith: I have a really quick question that may have a short answer. In this area in recent months, have any other foreign diplomatic services contacted Mr. Keown at his level or grade to seek advice as to how they could develop a Bill?

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Military Aircraft (1 Jul 2025)

Duncan Smith: 124. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to provide greater detail regarding the evacuation of 15 Irish citizens from Israel, specifically the role of Austria in the evacuation, and the reasoning behind the Defence Forces not performing the evacuation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35442/25]

Written Answers — Department of Defence: Defence Forces (1 Jul 2025)

Duncan Smith: 199. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the reason the Defence Force Regulations made by him under the Defence Acts 1954 to 2015 are not laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas or included in the electronic Irish Statute Book or made public, whether pursuant to section 3 of the Statutory Instruments Act 1947 or otherwise; if the Defence Force Regulations have been expressed to be...

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: Discussion (Resumed) (2 Jul 2025)

Duncan Smith: If we are dealing with an entity that is already included in the written statement, which has been laid before-----

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: Discussion (Resumed) (2 Jul 2025)

Duncan Smith: In terms of our potential questioning, we cannot ask a question based on an entity that is in the written – I am not trying to be difficult, Chair. I just wanted clarity on it.

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: Discussion (Resumed) (2 Jul 2025)

Duncan Smith: I thank Mr. Liston and Mr. O’Neill, with a special word of thanks to Senator Black. We are all in an awful lot of communication in and around these Houses on this debate, and in media. This is an important session in terms of this Bill, and we would not be here if it was not for this Bill that the Senator brought in in 2018. I acknowledge and thank her for that. We still have a bit...

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: Discussion (Resumed) (2 Jul 2025)

Duncan Smith: There is certainly a sense when it comes to something as stark and as horrible as what is happening there that we can feel a bit impotent in our part of the world to help in a tangible way. My sense, with regard to the Senator’s Bill, is that politicians and activists feel they have something tangible they can do. It will not solve everything. As the Senator said, it is modest but...

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: Discussion (Resumed) (2 Jul 2025)

Duncan Smith: Something that comes back is that the volume of trade with the illegal Israeli settlements is not that high. It is relatively unimportant in terms of the volume but is there not a future-proofing element to this Bill as well? If Israel continues expanding its illegal settlements, would this Bill - and variations of it brought in other countries - make those future settlements more...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (3 Jul 2025)

Duncan Smith: It is on Committee Stage.

Organisation of Working Time (Leave for Health Screening Purposes) Bill 2025: First Stage (3 Jul 2025)

Duncan Smith: I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to provide for a period of paid leave in order to enable employees to participate in health screening programmes; for that purpose to amend the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997; to extend the protection against unfair dismissals conferred by the Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977 to 2015; to provide for the consequential...

Organisation of Working Time (Leave for Health Screening Purposes) Bill 2025: First Stage (3 Jul 2025)

Duncan Smith: I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."