Ray Butler (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade his position in respect of trade with Israel; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44013/12]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Ireland’s trade with Israel currently amounts to over €1bn per annum. Israel is an important trading partner and under its trade promotion strategy, the Government is committed to growing Ireland’s exports in all foreign markets, and expanding our trade footprint outside our main trading partners. It has been a long-standing position of successive governments that Ireland does not support trade sanctions or boycotts against Israel. I believe, as have my predecessors that support for a policy of boycotts or sanctions would only weaken the weight carried by our views, both in Israel, where we seek to persuade, and among our European partners.

I have recently answered a number of questions on the related but separate issue of the importation of products from illegal Israeli settlements. Notwithstanding the EU’s clear view on the illegality of Israel’s settlement activity in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, there is, in my view, no prospect of securing agreement at EU level on the banning of products produced in the settlements from entering the European Union.