Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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506. To ask the Minister for Defence the steps his Department is undertaking during procurement of defensive equipment by his Department to ensure human rights due diligence is undertaken; and regarding public procurement from Israeli security company Elbit, if he will consider reviewing further public contracts from this supplier in view of its alleged involvement in illegal activities. [21694/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The primary purpose for the procurement of defensive equipment by the Department of Defence is to maintain the capability of the Irish Defence Forces on overseas Peace Support Operations and to afford the greatest possible force protection to Irish troops whilst on such missions.

Tender competitions for defensive equipment for the Defence Forces are conducted by the Department of Defence in accordance with EU procurement guidelines and with the EU Code of Conduct on Export Controls. Accordingly, competitions are open to any individual or country in accordance with the terms of all UN, OSCE and EU arms embargoes or restrictions. There are no such restrictions or embargoes in place on Israeli companies.

In following these guidelines and codes, the Department of Defence must deal impartially with all companies that are entitled to enter its procurement competitions and must evaluate tenders on the basis of objective criteria.

The principle of competitive tendering for Government contracts is used by the Department of Defence for the acquisition of defensive equipment for the Defence Forces. Central to those procedures is the requirement to allow fair competition between suppliers through the submission of tenders following advertising of the tender competition usually on the e-tenders site in line with the EU Directive on the procurement of Defence and Security equipment.

The matter of barring Israeli companies from entering tender competitions for the provision of military goods would be akin to Ireland unilaterally placing an embargo on such goods from Israel and this raises, inter alia, serious implications for Irish foreign policy which are outside my remit.

As the Deputy is aware, trade policy and market access are largely EU competencies and any restriction or ban on imports from any particular country would have to be concerted at EU level.

The Irish Government has consistently been opposed to proposals for trade, diplomatic, cultural, academic, sporting or other boycotts of Israel. In the absence of a general trade embargo of Israel, the Department of Defence cannot unilaterally preclude Israeli companies from participating in tender competitions for military or any other type of goods.