Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I echo what Senator Black has just said. In these Houses, the provisions of Standing Orders and the Constitution regarding money messages are being blatantly abused. We look across at what is happening in the UK Supreme Court where somebody has had to intervene to prevent the Executive effectively overriding the will of the democratically elected houses of the UK Parliament yet we seem to be frozen in inaction when confronted by the same issues. I will say two things with regard to the Bill.It has been suggested by a number of people in the Israeli Government, including Mr. Netanyahu, and a number of their keen supporters here in Ireland, who are by no means representative of the entire Jewish community in Ireland but are ardent Zionists - I will not mention any names - that somehow there was something anti-Semitic in that legislation. There was not. There was not a shred of anti-Semitism in it. The great majority of liberal, decent people of the Jewish religion in Israel, America and in other places recognise that the annexation of the West Bank is nothing to do with anti-Semitism, it has everything to do with Zionist imperialism, as it was reflected by the utterly cynical and totally wrong and dishonest behaviour of Prime Minister Netanyahu in trying to swing the last few votes out of his electorate by claiming that he was going to annex even more of the Palestinian territory in defiance of international law. We, in these Houses, have a right and a duty to protest against that. We have a right to call on our Government to stand up unequivocally for what is right and to make it very clear to those people who are still in office in Israel, despite the fact that they have lost the support of the people at the recent election, that annexation of Palestinian territory, whether it is supported in the White House or in certain quarters around the world, is against international law and that the removal of people and the use of those territories for economic gain is in breach of international law and that it should not be tolerated.

A suggestion was made yesterday in a debate in this House by Senator Norris, who became voluble on the subject, on whether the money message provision was invoked to stop printing. If one looks at yesterday's transcript, one will see he was concerned about this. The money message provision was invoked on the basis that to make regulations, to type them out and put them on a computer screen somewhere and to promulgate them would involve expenditure. That is a disgrace. It is a real mark of disgrace and dishonour on this Government, that it would think of doing that. The use of Civil Service time and a Minister's time to put a signature on a piece of paper generated within an office is no more an appropriation of the public revenues than anything, no matter how trivial, could be. The time has come for us to be honest in this House and to say the Government must stop this charade. The Government is a minority one and I fully accept there are difficulties in keeping control of public expenditure when it is in a minority position, but using the money message procedure in bad faith to frustrate the will of the Members of these Houses to protest against and to make illegal the importation into Ireland of goods manufactured in the occupied territories is a shameful act, the responsibility for which lies firmly at the feet of the Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, and the Tánaiste, Deputy Coveney. They should be ashamed of themselves.