Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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148. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment further to Parliamentary Question No. 258 of 18 September 2024, and further to reports of arms being illegally trafficked through Ireland bound for Israel, his views on whether ‘sure as possible’ checks are sufficient to ensure that any dual-use export licence which has been granted to a consignee based in Israel does not result in goods or services being provided to a person or company whose activities either directly or indirectly support or contribute to Israel’s ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39029/24]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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My Department is the National Competent Authority with responsibility for Export Controls, including Controls on defence-related exports and exports of Dual-Use goods. Controls on the export of Dual-use items are administered by my Department, in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2021/821 of the European Parliament and of the Council setting up a Union regime for the control of exports, brokering, technical assistance, transit and transfer of dual-use items. The EU dual-use regulation has direct effect across the EU. The recently commenced Control of Exports Act 2023 streamlines and strengthens the existing Irish export control framework, replacing the Control of Exports Act 2008, and provides for effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties for infringements of the regulation’s provisions.

Any exporter intending to export a Dual-use item outside the EU must engage with my Department. Exporters must have internal compliance procedures and do adequate due diligence on their customers to ensure they meet the requirements set out in the dual use regulation. Each export licence application, including those indicating an end destination in Israel, are carefully considered by my officials in accordance with criteria set out within the relevant dual-use and military EU and National Regulations and with Ireland’s international obligations and responsibilities as members of non-proliferation regimes and export control arrangements.

On receipt of an application for an export licence, my officials carry out a thorough risk assessment and evaluate all available information. This assessment includes a series of checks (including consultations with technical experts where relevant) to ensure, as far as possible, that the item to be exported will be used by the stated end-user for the stated end-use and will not be used for illicit purposes. As part of the application, the exporter must provide an end-user certificate, which is a declaration from the end-user that the goods will be used for the intended purpose. A false declaration is an offence. As part of their assessment, my officials seek the views of the Department of Foreign Affairs in respect of all applications for export licences, including those destined for Israeli end users. Both my own Department and the Department of Foreign Affairs review all dual-use export licence applications against the eight assessment criteria set out in Council Common Position 2008/944/CFSP.

If there are any concerns that the goods being exported will be used for a military end-use or if the exporter does not provide enough information on the intended end-use for my officials to make an informed decision, the application for a licence is denied. Investigations are undertaken where there is a potential breach of the Dual Use Regulation. Providing false or misleading information or being reckless as to whether it is false, or misleading is an offence under the Control of Exports Act 2023. It is worth noting that the vast majority of dual-use goods exported from Ireland, including to Israel, are mainstream business ICT products, both hardware and software (networking, data storage, cybersecurity etc) that are categorised as Dual-use items as a consequence of the fact that they incorporate strong encryption for ICT security purposes.

In applying export controls in a robust and transparent way, the Department ensures that legitimate business transactions by reputable Irish traders are not damaged in any way while also ensuring that exports of controlled goods are thoroughly risk assessed in the context of ongoing conflicts, diversion of goods and humanitarian considerations.