Results 281-300 of 6,660 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: Discussion (Resumed) (2 Jul 2025)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: I thank the Senator. That is absolutely right. For me it is about Ireland using what levers it has, and this legislation in one. It is also about representing consequences for actions because there is just impunity on a grand scale. I will direct my next question to Mr. O'Neill, but also for any other speaker. In concrete terms at this moment in time what kinds of goods and services...

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)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: For those companies trading currently, or those individuals who are trading, between Ireland and the settlements and vice versa, are there risks already? Do they potentially face criminal sanction from existing legislation? Does the Department of enterprise provide any advice 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)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: I will pick up on the points Mr. Liston made about the International Criminal Court Act and the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act. Under those Acts, as I understand it, a person or company based in Ireland could currently be prosecuted for trading with the occupied territories. Is that correct?

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)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: People can take cases in all sorts of ways. Could it be argued that someone who was subject to such a prosecution could seek to take a case of infringement proceedings against EU legislation on that basis? It is a difficult question to phrase. Could someone take a case or infringement proceedings to the European Court of Justice that it is a legitimate or wrongful interference with trade...

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)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: That is precisely-----

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)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: That is precisely the point. The Irish Government would presumably adopt the same defence it might to infringement proceedings, if someone were to take a case on the basis of services under this legislation. Would it be fair to say that the defence of the Irish Government would be precisely the same if it were defending this legislation, if it were to include services, that is arguing there...

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)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: I will be as quick as I can. The infrastructure of the previous legislation in regard to applying to occupied territories generally was preferable. It is not a reason to stand in the way of this legislation, but these are not the only areas that are occupied contrary to international law. It would be right not to permit trade with or to have sanctions against trade from Russian-occupied...

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)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: Yes, I will follow up on the question I asked Mr. Liston a short time ago before we ran out of time. The application of international law is binding on Ireland as a member state. There was some attempt to confuse the matter by talking about how European countries pool their obligations and so on. The Department also spoke about "empowering legislation", I think that was the phrase used. I...

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

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: Go raibh maith agaibh. First, I thank the witnesses for their service over many years. While I do not agree with everything contained in their statements their contributions were very considerable and quite remarkable. They have clearly led very distinguished careers and the committee is very grateful. There is a bit of a talking point, more generally, about whether the triple lock is...

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

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: I am conscious of my time. We are not guaranteed to always have a mature government. I make that point and we have to think of that when we make legislation. Does Mr. Brennan have any reservations, even if he favours the removal of the triple lock? Some people have expressed concerns about the lack of safeguards.

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

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: I will come to Ms O'Brien in a second. I would also say the people who would be the arbiters of that are the self-same people who will be proposing to deploy troops.

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

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: Yes.

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

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: I thank Ms O'Brien.

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

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: I thank Mr. Doyle. It is great to see our former colleague, Cathal Berry. Does he have anything to add?

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

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: I am not sure what I will do for the 40 seconds. I have a question for Ms O'Brien. Heads 6 and 7 of the Bill are quite different. It is interesting in that head 6 relates to deployment as part of an international force but it is actually head 7 that relates to some of the issues that have caused the most frustration and they are ones that I am very sympathetic to. There is probably...

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...