Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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115. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will report on any or all discussions with his counterparts across Europe given the recent report by an organisation (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14567/22]

Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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137. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade his views on the call by an organisation (details supplied) for the United Nations Security Council to impose targeted sanctions against Israeli officials implicated in the crime of apartheid; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15322/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 115 and 137 together.

Amnesty International is a respected NGO, and I value the role it and other civil society organisations play on these issues. I note the publication of the detailed and comprehensive report issued on 1 February. The content of the report is under review by officials in my Department, and they have had an initial meeting with Amnesty International on the report and its recommendations.

There have not been discussions at EU level of this report to date. However, Ireland has been consistently forthright in expressing concern regarding the unequal treatment of Palestinians in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, including at EU level. Ireland works closely with our EU partners on the issue and my officials remain in close contact with EU member states, the European Commission and the European External Action Service. Ireland will continue to raise our concerns on a regular basis directly with the Israeli authorities, including during visits to the region, as well as at EU and UN fora.

Ireland has also been proactive in regularly highlighting our concerns on this issue, including demolitions and settlement expansion, at the UN Security Council during our term. Ireland has maintained a consistent approach at monthly meetings on the situation in the Middle East and has raised particular issues of concern, including the designation of six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist organisations and housing plans by Israel in East Jerusalem. At the Council meeting on 22 March, Ireland reiterated the longstanding EU position that Israel must end settlement expansion, confiscations, demolitions and evictions. Ireland has been clear that these actions are underlying causes of tension and violence.

In relation to the issue of sanctions, Ireland does not have any unilateral sanctions regimes, but implements EU sanctions, adopted as part of the Common Foreign and Security Policy, and UN sanctions. There are currently no EU or UN sanctions in place against Israel and there is not a consensus either at the level of the EU, or the UN Security Council, on the introduction of sanctions against Israel.