Helen McEntee: Introduces Bill to Ban Imports from Settlements

Thank you. 20 minutes Minister. Thank you Ciann Comhairle. I move that the Bill be now read a second time. I'm pleased to introduce for the consideration of the House the Israeli Settlements Prohibition of Importation of Goods Bill which I'll refer to in my speech as the Bill. I'm very conscious that the Bill has been the subject of much debate not just in this House in the media but indeed amongst the wider public. The Government fully understands the depth of feeling in Ireland and indeed in this House when it comes to the subject of Palestine. We deeply share these concerns. They are a product of our history and I think of our shared humanity and I personally understand and share the depth of feeling in this House. It is consistent with our core values respect for human rights, dignity, international law and it is the approach that this Government and many Governments before us have taken to different situations around the world where very clearly human rights and international law are not respected. I'm also very conscious that as we debate this in the House today behind every debate that we have, every decision that we take, are peoples whose lives are shaped by the decisions of Governments and institutions and it's in that context that I want to clearly set out the purpose of this Bill including the motivation behind it and what we hope to achieve by enacting it in this way. I want to begin by addressing the situation on the ground in Gaza, the reality for ordinary Palestinians more broadly which is the backdrop for our debate. I mentioned many times of my visit to Rafah, the crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip earlier this year. This is something I suppose that will always stick with me and I think it's in particular because of the painful contrast. On one side we had warehouses full of food, food that was going out of date because the labelling wasn't correct. We had significant levels of medical supplies that couldn't be provided because there was metal in them and they were being suggested as weapons. We saw children's toys left sitting there, all of this ready to deliver on one side, yet on the other side more than two million people in Gaza were enduring conditions that no one should be forced to survive. Men, women and children have lost their lives, countless more have been injured and entire families and communities have been utterly devastated. Behind every statistic it's a life cut short, it's a child deprived of a future and its families living with unimaginable grief. Today the people of Gaza continue to endure that unimaginable suffering. Intolerable conditions persist as mass displacement and poor shelter conditions expose civilians to rising public health risks linked to pests, to rodents alongside ongoing Israeli strikes, shelling and gunfire. The food security situation remains precarious while again essential services are at risk of collapse. That is why Ireland has consistently and persistently provided for but also called for unhindered humanitarian access to people in Gaza. In the West Bank the situation continues to deteriorate. We are witnessing the massive expansion of settlements alongside rampant and escalating settler violence which continues in an atmosphere of impunity. The scale, the speed and the severity of the displacement and demolitions is unprecedented. In April of this year an Israeli security cabinet approved 34 new West Bank settlements, the largest approved by any government at one time. The planned E1 settlement near Jerusalem threatens to cut completely the West Bank in half, calling into question the very viability of a Palestinian state. The actions of this Israeli government consistently contravene international law and are part of an established pattern to create a new status quo in the occupied Palestinian territory. Their actions are explicitly designed to bury the idea of a two-state solution. This is not happening by design, it is not happening by accident. So Ireland will continue to defend a Palestinian state consisting of Gaza and the West Bank including East Jerusalem and we will continue to advocate for the right of Palestinians to self-determination, a right already enjoyed by Israelis. We are committed to working with those who want to achieve a just and lasting peace where Israelis and Palestinians live side by side in two states, Israel and Palestine in peace, security and dignity based on the 1967 borders. The cycle of violence that has brought suffering to both Palestinians and Israelis needs to be brought to an end. During my visit to Rafa earlier this year I announced that we will continue to provide the humanitarian assistance that is so urgently needed but I would again use this opportunity to reiterate the need not just for Ireland or for the EU but for international partners to continue that support. The bill that we are discussing here today I believe will contribute positively to Irish and international efforts to prevent unilateral actions that impinge upon the rights of Palestinian people to self-determination and upon the viability of the two-state solution and I want to thank Francis Black and others who have supported this legislation and other pieces of legislation in bringing them forward. The two-state solution is the only viable long-term solution. It is as important for Israelis as it is for Palestinians. Those who reject it appear to have no alternative plan. The current cycle of violence cannot continue to happen indefinitely. Let me be clear also at the same time this government has consistently condemned the appalling terrorist actions of Hamas on the October 7th on the need for those responsible for the brutal murders of innocent civilians to be held accountable but I will also reiterate the government's view that the appalling and the worsening situation in Gaza, the accelerating and rampant settler violence and settlement expansion in the West Bank coupled with now the ongoing situation in Lebanon can never be justified and demands serious and concrete actions in response. This bill as I've said will contribute positively to Ireland's efforts to uphold and to comply with international law including the findings of the 2024 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice. Because our own experiences on this island we feel a deep and personal affinity with those who seek self-determination, who simply seek to live with dignity and peace. Again the actions that this government is taking and have taken consistently including the progression of this bill have always been designed to advance those central objectives. On the 19th of July 2024 the International Court of Justice delivered an advisory opinion on the legal consequences of the policies and practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, a case in which Ireland but also more than 50 other member states made written and oral submissions. The court concluded that states should and I quote take steps to prevent trade or investment relations that assist in the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. This bill represents a fulfillment of that commitment but also a clear commitment made by this government in our program for government where we committed to progress legislation to prohibit the importation of goods from Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Today we are beginning the process of that commitment. Behind all of this and again to remind all of us we're talking about people, we're doing this on behalf of families who want safety, children who deserve a future and communities who have endured far too much loss and suffering. We thank this house for the consideration that has taken place since the government approved the general scheme of the bill in June of last year. This includes pre-legislative scrutiny of the general scheme undertaken by the Joint Committee of Foreign Affairs and Trade in July of 27. The committee published its pre-legislative scrutiny report in July and this report and recommendations can I say have been carefully considered in the period since publication and in the development of the bill. To now outline detailed provisions of the bill with a particular focus on the key sections of the bill, section one and two are standard provisions setting out the relevant definitions and how the related regulations and orders will be dealt with. Section three empowers the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade following consultation with the Minister for Finance to prescribe by order certain postal codes that correspond to Israeli settlements. It should be noted that these postal codes are already set out under a technical arrangement concluded between the EU and the Government of Israel. This is to ensure that importers are aware of which locations are not eligible for preferential tariff treatment under the EU-Israel association agreement. As the postal codes listed under the EU-Israel technical agreement are periodically updated, section four allows the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade following consultation with the Minister for Finance to amend or replace the list of prescribed postal codes. If new settlements are constructed they will therefore be captured by the updated list of postal codes at the EU level and our own list prescribed codes will be updated accordingly. Practically speaking, the approach set out in the bill essentially develops and updates Ireland's implementation of the existing obligations placed upon operators and customs authorities to distinguish between goods from the State of Israel and settlement goods under the EU-Israel technical arrangement and this is to ensure that we are compliant with international law. Section five prohibits the importation of goods originating in postal codes prescribed by order of the Minister Foreign Affairs and Trade. Any such importation will thereby become an offence under section 14 of the Customs Act 2015. The bill does not create any new offences in and of itself. It is proposed that under the legislation goods originating in Israeli settlements would become goods subject to any prohibition or restriction on importation within the meaning of that phrase for the purpose of the 2015 Customs Act. Once the bill is enacted and commenced it will be an offence as I've said under section 14 of the Customs Act to import settlement goods and the provision of that act concerning search, seizure and forfeiture will be available in respect of settlement goods. There's already been some disinformation suggesting that this bill will target individuals and I just want to provide clarity on this point. The bill will prohibit the import of commercial goods from Israeli settlements. A standard exemption is provided for those goods of a non-commercial nature that form part of an individual's personal baggage and are intended for his or her personal consumption or use and this applies in other areas as well. Section 6 and 7 meanwhile deal with the matter of possible exemptions and appeals. As I mentioned earlier a list of postal codes that correspond to Israeli settlements are already set out under a technical arrangement concluded between the EU and the Government of Israel. Some of these postcodes encompass an area that include both a settlement area and an area within Israel proper and therefore even under the current system they already require some basic checks to determine the precise origin of the goods. Section 6 is aimed at addressing this particular issue. An importer from one of these postal codes can apply to the Revenue Commissioners for an exemption if their goods originate in the non-settlement part of the listed postal code. Before issuing such an exemption the Revenue Commissioners will make inquiries again via the European Commission or if necessary via other bodies such as the Embassy of Ireland in Tel Aviv to ascertain the precise origin of the goods. This process for checking more or less replicates the current system that we have. To facilitate the implementation of the process set out above, Section 7 sets out the amendments to be made to Section 45 of the Customs Act to allow for the importer to be notified of the decision of the Revenue Commissioners and to provide the importer with the right to appeal. Section 8 provides for the information sharing and is designed to allow the relevant bodies to work together to effectively enforce the bill. The remaining sections are all relatively standard provisions and deal with issues such as data protection and other technical issues. There's been a lot of focus on what is not covered by the bill with several suggestions that we're trying to water down the bill perhaps because it does not cover services. I want to address this directly. This government has always been clear on what is possible in bringing forward legislation. We've had a responsibility for any legislation to ensure that it is legally robust and able to withstand challenge. This would not be the case with respect to services. The government has sought and received advice from the Attorney General on the legal permissibility of an EU member state adopting measures to prohibit trade in services with a third country or territory. In the case of goods, a public policy exemption exists in the EU regulation which controls the import of goods. This allows member states to adopt prohibitions on the import of goods for public policy reasons. There is no equivalent or similar broad public policy exemption relating to external trade in services. Secondly, it's the government's considered view that there would be huge challenges regarding the effective implementation and the enforcement of restrictions on trade in services. By its very nature, trade in services is broad, it's wide-ranging, services are in many cases digital or intangible and subject to a number of different regulatory regimes. If you look at the World Trade Organization's general agreement on trade services, it regulates global trade in services classified into 12 separate sectors and 150 sub-sectors. The European single market in its own is a lot less harmonized in respect of trade in services than it is for trade in goods. And then again, if you look at its split in services across a variety of pieces of EU legislation, essentially the implication of this and the implementation of this becomes much more significantly challenging. Finally, the government must ensure at all times that there is balance in all of the measures that we take, including consideration of any potential economic consequences. This government will always take a responsible course of action. This more broadly, can I say, contributes to our ability to lead internationally and to actually make a difference in progressing what is the overall objective here. And so to that effect, Ireland has shown leadership on this issue more broadly. We were the first EU country to announce our intention to prohibit the importation of settlement goods and the government stated very clearly at the time that we hoped this would encourage other countries to follow our example. This is what has happened. Several other member states, particularly Spain, as we know, they've introduced legislation already, but now aligned with our progress of legislation, the Netherlands and Belgium are progressing their own legislation, as is Norway. And of course, we hope to see many others. All are primarily focused on the prohibition of the importation of goods from Israeli settlements. Since taking on this role myself last November, I've ensured that Ireland remains at the forefront of every effort to support peace and human dignity by ensuring that we uphold international law, by ensuring that this issue is raised at every council meeting that I attend. Under the leadership of then Taoiseach Simon Harris, Ireland recognised the state of Palestine. We did this alongside Spain and Norway. When it became clear that the prospects of both were diminishing, Ireland did not hesitate to lead on recognising the state of Palestine. We took this decision despite some strong criticism because we believed it was the right thing to do. And every decision that we have taken in relation to Israel, Palestine, and the current situation in Gaza and the West Bank and Lebanon has been based on the right thing to do. This brings me to actions at an EU level. While we're moving ahead on settlement trade at a national level, the legislation we're discussing here today, our preference has stated clearly to this house, and I've said it many times, is that collective action be taken at an EU level. This will have a much greater impact. I'm absolutely convinced that if the EU were to act to progress legislation at a European level, where all 27 member states responded collectively and effectively, that we would have a greater ability to change the direction and the actions of the Israeli government, and I fundamentally believe this. We need to do more. The EU has not done enough, and so I have consistently called for further action and will continue to throughout our presidency. At foreign affairs councils, I've consistently called on the European Commission to bring forward proposals to prohibit EU trade with Israeli settlements on the basis of the EU's common commercial policy. A ban with trade with Israeli settlements at the EU level has the scope, as I've said, to be far more comprehensive, to have a much wider impact, and in our view it is essential in order to ensure that the common commercial policy meets the requirements of international law. Working closely with European partners, we have however managed to build up a greater consensus. We have for the first time built a consensus for sanctions against violent Israeli settlers responsible for attacks on Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank, while also supporting EU sanctions against Hamas leaders and those responsible for the atrocious terrorist violence on the 7th of October. I've reiterated Ireland's previous calls to suspend the EU-Israel association agreement, or at a minimum that we would suspend the trade element of the agreement as previously proposed by the President of the European Commission. This in itself, in monetary terms, would have a significant impact on the overall Israeli economy, and I do believe would impact change in their decision making. Ireland's position has increasingly been echoed across Europe, and I do say this from November when I took on this role to the last meeting that I attended, the number of Member States that are speaking out, that are speaking up, and that actively want to see Europe take a stronger stance and a stronger position has changed and it has increased, and I believe that Ireland, along with many other Member States, have brought us to that position. I also believe and welcome today the fact that 460 former and current European political leaders, diplomats and public figures publishing a joint appeal calling on the European Union to take stronger action in response to Israel's conduct in the West Bank is something that is extremely welcome, and again I hope will show progress and will show a greater level of support for these actions that I've outlined. The Taoiseach, as we know, wrote to the European Council President in the last month reiterating Ireland's position on the EU trade ban with Israel, requesting that this is an urgent discussion among EU leaders, that we're not just discussing it at a Foreign Affairs Council, at the European Council, but that also this is front and centre in the Council meetings. As Minister, I've repeatedly called for EU Member States to sanction extremist settlers and entities and those that enable them, and as I've said, was pleased that agreement could be reached on this in the last month. What we need to do next is we need to ensure that that focus and that pressure remains, and so when I attend the next Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Luxembourg, I will again be reiterating that we don't just focus on banning the travel for extremist ministers in Israel, that we don't just focus on the need for a vote to ban and to essentially suspend the trade element of the EU Association Agreement, but that at a national level we replicate exactly what we are doing in this chamber, and that the EU supports a full ban on trade with the occupied territories at a European level. It is clear that our position has been consistent, we have led from the front on the recognition of Palestine, we have led from the front on the issue of trade with settlements, and we will continue to lead on the need for effective EU action, and I say this not just as the Government, I think we've all done that in this House, we've all done that from an Irish perspective. Throughout this debate, again I have to remind us, and I think we all are reminded, that this is essentially about people, it's about protecting the possibility of a just peace. We cannot lose sight of the immense human cost of this conflict, the lives lost, the families shattered, the generations of Palestinians and Israelis who deserve a future free from violence and fear. I look forward to working with colleagues in this House as we continue our discussions, as we progress this important legislation in the coming weeks, and as I hope we work collectively together to implement this legislation. We might not all agree on every element of it, but I sincerely believe that by implementing this legislation we are sending the strongest message possible, that we do not accept the actions of the Israeli Government, that we fully support the need to protect the possibility of a two-state solution, the only viable solution for peace within the region, and that we will continue to do everything that we can to support those who are suffering unimaginable humanitarian issues at the moment, and I believe that Ireland can continue to lead in this regard.