Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)
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Question 182: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if his attention has been drawn to a non-paper forwarded by the UK Government to the European Commission in 2009 in relation to customs checks on goods from illegal Israeli settlements; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33057/09]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Day to day import controls and related verification procedures in respect of imports from illegal Israeli settlements are undertaken by the Customs authorities and my Department is not involved in these procedures.

Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)
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Question 183: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment her views on whether it is acceptable that, due to unclear labelling, consumers here are not always able to distinguish if goods produced in the West Bank have been produced in an illegal Israeli settlement or in a Palestinian controlled area; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33059/09]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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As I advised in a previous reply on this matter to the House, insofar as consumer protection considerations are concerned, the Consumer Protection Act 2007 includes specific provisions in relation to the provision of information to consumers in the course of commercial transactions. Specifically the Act provides that the provision of false information in relation to the geographical or commercial origin of a product and where that information would be likely to cause the average consumer to make a transactional decision that the average consumer would not otherwise make, that such a practice is a misleading commercial practice. Traders who engage in misleading commercial practices commit an offence and are liable on conviction on indictment or on summary conviction, as the case may be, to the fines and penalties provided for under the Act.

Evidence of traders engaging in misleading commercial practices should be brought to the attention of the National Consumer Agency, which is the body responsible for the enforcement of the Consumer Protection Act 2007.

As regards issues relating to the West Bank and settlements within the West Bank, such issues essentially involve foreign policy considerations which are the responsibility of my colleague the Minister for Foreign Affairs.