Government to decide 'soon' on progressing Occupied Territories Bill

Foreign affairs minister has received clarifications from the attorney general and is considering the advice

An Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign protest outside Leinster House, Dublin, in February, calling for the Occupied Territories Bill to be enacted. 

The Government is expected to decide on progressing the Occupied Territories Bill “soon”, after it received the latest advice from the attorney general.

Foreign affairs minister Helen McEntee received the clarifications from the attorney general in recent weeks and is considering the advice, with one Government source saying there would be movement on the bill “soon enough”.

“It’s been fairly technical. It’s more for us to have absolute clarity. If we’re progressing it the minister needs to be able to have a response for every eventuality here,” one Government source said.

“It’s all well and good saying we’ll just move on it now, but if there’s some unintended consequence, that’s when it’ll blow up.”

They said the Department of Foreign Affairs was coming to the end of the process of examining the revised advice.

While the Government has committed to passing legislation to ban trade with the Israeli-occupied territories in the Palestinian West Bank, it is not yet clear whether services will be included as part of the final bill.

Speaking in the Dáil on Thursday, Ms McEntee said the Government was still committed to introducing the laws and a decision would be made on the timeline of its introduction.

Ms McEntee said she wanted to see action taken by multiple EU countries, explaining that this leads to “greater impact” and “greater progress”.

“My objective and that of the Government is to make sure that this war comes to an end, that we stop people being murdered and killed and that we support those innocent civilians,” she said.

The ongoing delay in bringing forward the laws was criticised by Social Democrats deputy leader Cian O’Callaghan, who questioned if the bill would be brought forward in advance of the Dáil’s summer recess.

“We cannot afford to wait on this any longer,” Mr O’Callaghan said.