Paul Hosford: Nobody in a rush to applaud Government's version of Occupied Territories Bill

Micheál Martin hits back at opposition TDs who criticised the omission of services from the Israeli Settlements (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2026 

Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin speaking to the media before today's Cabinet meeting. Picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews

It is hard for any Government to garner praise from the opposition.

But on Tuesday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin had had enough of the negativity.

Having seen the Government finally bring its version of the Occupied Territories Bill — the Israeli Settlements (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2026 — to Cabinet, Mr Martin was weary at criticism of the Government. 

Mary Lou McDonald said the new version of the bill had "gutted" the intention of the original by omitting services. 

When similar criticism was made by People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett, it set the Taoiseach off.

"We recognise Palestine and the Deputy moves on quickly. We intervene in the legal case by South Africa and he moves on quickly. We double down on UNRWA and he moves on quickly. When we went to the ICJ, he moved on quickly. We do the Occupied Territories Bill, and the Deputy again moves on quickly and calls for us to boycott Israel."

Ireland has gone further than most countries

The Taoiseach’s argument was clear: He believes the Government has gone further than others in Europe on Gaza and, on the day it advanced legislation to ban the import of goods from the occupied Palestinian territories, that it deserves more credit — or at least less criticism.

Paul Murphy, Mr Boyd Barrett's colleague, was in less charitable mood, asking the Taoiseach if he "wants a medal". Sinn Féin's Máire Devine sarcastically interjected that Mr Martin's argument was "so virtuous".

While the Taoiseach may feel, with some justification, that his Government has done far more than others across Europe, the architect of the bill — Senator Frances Black — was also critical of the omission of services.

She said that what had been announced was "essentially a partial ban on trade with the illegal Israeli settlements".

The Government has sought to downplay the impact of the bill. Mr Martin told the Dáil it would affect little more than €200,000 worth of produce each year.

Threat to jobs 

But it was his response to Ms McDonald that underlined the Government's real concerns.

There is an issue in terms of what will happen if services were included in terms of our own jobs in this country and potential attacks on multinationals who are based here. 

"That is the reality. People can dismiss that all they want; I do not dismiss it. 

"I have to protect about 250,000 jobs in this country too, and there is a real issue that people are turning a blind eye to in terms of that this is something we can do casually and nobody is going to pay a blind bit of notice. 

"There have been a lot of attacks on Ireland because of the leadership stance we have taken as a Government."

In those comments, Mr Martin tacitly admitted that concerns about Ireland's multinational sector, particularly around what would happen in the event that companies based here had outposts in illegal settlements, weighed on the Government's decision to omit services.

That is a fair balance for a country's leader to attempt to strike, but having taken 18 months to get this far, having picked the issue up in the 2024 election campaign, it is hard to see why anyone would be rushing to celebrate this version of the bill.