Results 21-40 of 289 for speaker:Patricia Stephenson

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) (16 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: We heard from the legal experts among the Department officials that if we only applied the legislation to goods and not services, we would be only partially compliant with the ICJ ruling. We have that legal advice. How does Mr. O'Brien feel about that information from the officials from the Department of foreign affairs?

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) (16 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: Our obligations under international law, as a result of the ICJ ruling, include trade in services. Does IBEC feel we should be meeting those obligations?

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) (16 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: At international level as well as EU level.

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) (16 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: The EU and international level, in Mr. O'Brien's opinion. Both are required to suffice.

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) (16 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I wish to follow up on what the Chair said. Mr. O'Brien has talked about the services having additional complexities, both in terms of the political and implementation pieces. On that implementation aspect, I emphasise again there is already a legal obligation for companies under current law to distinguish between trade in goods and services between Israel and the occupied territories...

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) (16 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: We could perhaps follow up on that ourselves but it is available online. Mr. O'Brien also mentioned the number of employees linked to Ireland. Would he accept the vast majority of those companies and their employees have no involvement with the illegal settlements?

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) (16 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: Is that also services or just goods?

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) (16 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: Yes, but going back to that piece, they should be monitoring this. Mr. O'Brien said before that many of IBEC's members - and perhaps all of its members - are horrified by what is happening in Gaza and probably the West Bank as well. With that in mind, there was a report from the UN human rights expert which talked about business activities in illegal settlements and how they enable the...

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) (16 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: When I talk about this whole thing of trading with the illegal occupied territories - illegal under international humanitarian law - where there are violations, an apartheid state and genocide ongoing, would IBEC not say it is enabling those states through any type of 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) (16 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: Would IBEC accept grave human rights violations are happening in those places?

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) (16 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: Would IBEC's members also sign up to or align with the UN business and human rights principles?

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) (16 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I am out of time, thank you.

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) (16 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I thank Mr. O’Brien. We heard from officials of the Department last week or maybe the week before – I do not remember – that under international law Ireland is legally obliged to end trade in both goods and services. They acknowledged that if we ended trade only in goods, we would be only partially compliant with the ICJ ruling. They said that, to be fully compliant,...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2025: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: The Minister of State is asking to us support a Bill that erodes basic human dignity and environmental protections and basically gives carte blanche to developers to hide the fact that his Government is a serial failure when it comes to housing. We are asked to support a Bill that will lower housing standards at a time people are struggling to find homes that support basic well-being. He...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2025: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: On amendment No. 1 to amendment No. 13., I am going to double-check this and let the Minister of State know later, but this might have been slightly reformatted from my original submission. Maybe it was something to do with the renumbering but anyway, I will speak to the essence of the amendment. The purpose of this amendment is to limit the potentially negative effect of the specified...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2025: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: If it is better for the Minister of State, maybe I should speak to all the amendments as opposed to-----

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2025: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I propose to withdraw the amendment to amendment No. 16. Amendment No. 14, to delete “varied.”.” and substitute “varied.”, is to deal with a punctuation issue. I am sure the officials will pick up on that on another Stage of the Bill. The purpose of the amendment to amendment No. 25 is to ensure that extraordinary and worrying new powers under the 2024...

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) (15 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I thank the witnesses for taking the time to attend. They must be very tired with all of these questions. Mr. Cohen stated, and I am quoting him directly: "The only country in the world you choose to boycott by law is the one Jewish state ... not Russia for Crimea." That is factually incorrect. A ban on trade with Russian-occupied Crimea was passed into Irish law in 2014. Would Mr. Cohen...

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) (15 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I thank Mr. Cohen. I appreciate that.

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) (15 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I thank Mr. Shatter. That was just a question-----