Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will consider proposing to the EU Foreign Affairs Council the exclusion from the EU of products from illegal Israeli settlements; if in the absence of an EU agreement, he will also consider introducing an unilateral ban on Israeli settlement goods entering Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44807/12]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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External trade policy and controls are an EU competence, not a national one. And most or all settlement produce (which is probably a very small volume) reaches us as imports from other EU countries. A ban on importation can therefore only be enacted at EU level. In relation to the possibility of such a ban at EU level, I refer the Deputy to my reply to Priority Question 4 today on this topic.

I will also be writing to Deputies shortly in more detail on this issue.