Aidan Davitt (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The House has previously discussed the issue of councillors and their security. It has been raised by Senator Boyhan and other Senators who are present. This morning, the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, dealt with a Commencement matter on this important issue. Councillors deserve to be treated in the same fashion as Members of this House and the Lower House of the Oireachtas, particularly in the context of their security and security concerns. Following a Garda review, an allowance of €5,000 has been brought in for Oireachtas Members for cameras and various security systems. In fairness to the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, he was here this morning to discuss the detail of the issue. There is a review ongoing. I hope the money will be found to roll the scheme out to councillors.

The Dáil will deal with Second Stage of the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill 2023 later today. After discussion on the Bill, a moratorium will be put on it to flesh out its financial consequences. That is a prudent step. There is more to this than meets the eye. We should not go into it blind. We need more discussion on the Bill to flesh it out. When other countries rolled out legislation similar to the Bill that is before the Dáil, they experienced pushback from American states that stated they will not deal with countries that bring in such legislation. Senator Gavan might know more about that than I do; I am just looking at it from the outside in. We need to know where we are going on this. As we all know, that corner of the world and its geopolitical history is not straightforward. We need to do the right thing on this issue. We should not go into it without due consideration.