Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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522. To ask the Minister for Health the contact he or any Minister in his Department have had with any Minister or official in the government of Israel since January 2014; the nature of these contacts, the purpose of these contacts; if a record was kept; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39073/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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My Department participates in and attends a number of European and international meetings hosted and organised by the European Commission, and international bodies, such as the World Health Organisation, the United Nations, the Council of Europe, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development among others, at which Israel, as a member or as a grantee of observer status, attends.

Following extensive search of available records, I can confirm that neither Minister Burke, Minister Butler, nor I had any meeting with any Minister or official in the government of Israel, since we took office in the Department of Health.

Our search of available records identified one instance of a bilateral meeting with an official in the government of Israel in 2022, when Minister Rabbitte and departmental colleagues attended the 72nd Session of the World Health Organisation Regional Committee for Europe on 12-14 September 2022 in Tel Aviv. Minister Rabbitte met with the Ambassador to Israel, in the lead up to this meeting.

If the Deputy wishes for an examination of a longer timeline than Minister Donnelly’s time in office, it would require an extensive examination of historic records and would require a significantly longer timeframe.