A sum of “zero” was recorded for services between Ireland and illegal Israeli settlements in 2023, the Oireachtas committee scrutinising the draft legislation to ban trade from them has heard.
The total figure for goods imported into Ireland from the settlements in the occupied territories in 2024 was €214,000, senior officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs told the committee.
However, when it came to services, the department’s political director, Gerard Keown said there were no reliable figures and the latest available, for 2023, was zero.
He and his colleague, Declan Smyth, the department’s legal adviser, said that services could be traded on the internet and by email and were very difficult to monitor and quantify.
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In contrast, any goods from the occupied territories had to be presented to Irish customs before entry. Most imports from the settlements into Ireland are fruit and vegetables.
The officials were attending a meeting of the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee which is carrying out pre-legislative scrutiny of the Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025.
The draft legislation proposes to ban goods imported from the region but not services. Chairman John Lahart said there was broad agreement across all parties that services should be included in the Bill.
[ Despite the politics, Ireland is Israel’s second-biggest export market for goodsOpens in new window ]
Mr Smyth outlined several times that while services are not included in the Bill at present, the Attorney General Rossa Fanning has been asked to give legal advice to the Government on incorporating this category into the Bill.
Asked when that decision would be made, both officials said the Attorney General and Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Harris were both very aware the issue was now before the committee. Mr Keown said the Tánaiste would act “expeditiously” on the matter once the advice was received.
Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Fianna Fáil) said the volume of goods and services being traded was not the important issue.
“If the value was only €10, the symbolic value of the legislation is still enormous,” he said.
It was “frustrating” that the committee was discussing the Bill without having the opinion of the Attorney General on services, he added.
Sinéad Gibney (Social Democrats) said she was surprised at the zero sum for services given that properties in the illegal settlements are let on Airbnb.
Mr Keown said they were difficult to quantify. “Services are intangible. We do not have an accurate picture,” he said.
Mr Smyth told the committee that external trade with territories outside the EU was the exclusive competence of the union and not of member states.
He said that there were some “public policy exceptions” in EU regulation on the imports of goods that did give member states leeway to prohibit the import of goods. A country like Ireland could do so on public policy grounds. However, he said there was no such specific EU legislation that the department’s legal advisers could find that would allow Ireland act in a similar fashion with services.
The Bill is influenced by a judgment by the International Court of Justice on trade from illegal settlements. Mr Smyth agreed with Senator Patricia Stephenson (Social Democrats), Senator Alice Mary Higgins (Ind) and TD Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Sinn Féin) that the judgment referred to both goods and services. However, when asked whether international law trumps EU law, Mr Smyth replied that both had to be reconciled.
The committee was told that several countries have contacted the department to inquire about the Bill. Shay Brennan of Fianna Fáil, asked Mr Keown had any countries “pushed back” against it.
“There has been contact at official level from the United States around this, under the previous (Biden) administration to inquire about the intentions around this legislation”, Mr Keown said.
Michael McDowell said the EU laws were “devoid of common sense”. He said a state can block goods or services from another EU state but cannot block goods or services from a state outside the EU.
Senator Frances Black, who drafted the original Bill, said she was confident services could be included.
“I am 100 per cent certain that we can get the wording right. I believe there are no legal barriers to it,” she said.
