Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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129. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he is in favour of introducing formal governmental advice to discourage Irish businesses from purchasing goods from Israeli settlements and from having any other commercial or investment links with those settlements. [33019/13]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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It is important to re-emphasise that the Government’s main focus is on the Israeli settlements themselves, their relentless expansion and the restrictions enforced to bolster them, rather than on the less significant sub-issue of settlement products. The comparatively small amount of settlement products available on the EU market are insignificant in terms of EU trade with Israel, and are not even critical for the viability of the settlements themselves.

In relation to settlement products, I have kept the House informed of work under way at EU level to establish EU-wide guidelines on the labelling of settlement products. I have made very clear publicly my negative view of settlements and of the misappropriation of resources which enable the production of some settlement goods. My Department’s website already contains advice warning that the purchase of property in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian Territory or the occupied Golan Heights is subject to risk and that potential purchasers should seek independent legal advice before undertaking such purchases. I have also stated that I believe consumers wish to be able to distinguish settlement goods, and that labelling should not be able to mislead them in this regard. It is my expectation, and my preference, that action on labelling will take place at EU level. Until that EU discussion is complete, I do not wish to speculate on what further national actions may be desirable or necessary. It is again important to state that the Government does not support, and will not move to achieve, boycotts against goods from Israel.

It could also be necessary to take legal advice on any proposal to discriminate officially against goods which, in practical terms, would be bought not directly from settlements but from suppliers established in other EU member States, and goods legally present on the EU market.