{"id":123092,"date":"2025-10-15T06:57:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T06:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/123092\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T06:57:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T06:57:07","slug":"taoiseach-signals-occupied-territories-bill-unlikely-to-include-services-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/123092\/","title":{"rendered":"Taoiseach signals Occupied Territories Bill unlikely to include services \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Government<\/a> is said to be increasingly unlikely to include trade in services in the scope of the Occupied Territories Bill<\/a>, which is intended to ban trade in goods with companies operating from the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel.<\/p>\n

Speaking in the D\u00e1il<\/a> on Tuesday, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> said, \u201cthe feedback I\u2019m getting, it\u2019s not just implementable\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking afterwards, senior sources confirmed this is the Taoiseach\u2019s view \u2013 that including services would not be practically possible \u2013 though the official D\u00e1il record contains a slightly different version of what Mr Martin told the House.<\/p>\n

The official record of the D\u00e1il, published last night on the Oireachtas website, quotes Mr Martin as follows: \u201cThe Attorney General is coming back to us on a number of fronts, including how it could be implemented. The feedback I am getting is not just on whether it could be implemented but also on whether we would be putting companies based here in a very difficult position through no fault of their own in respect of how it would be treated in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, as confirmed by recordings of the D\u00e1il exchanges, what the Taoiseach said was this: \u201cThe Attorney General is coming back to us, on a number of fronts. One, its implementability, by the way. And the feedback I\u2019m getting it\u2019s not just implementable. But secondly, are you putting companies based here in a very difficult position through no fault of their own in respect of how that would be treated in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Pro-PalestinianPro-Palestinian supporters rally to support the Occupied Territories Bill outside the D\u00e1il earlier this year. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

[\u00a0A gym near Bethlehem offers a \u2018bridge between Ireland and Palestine\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The version in the official record suggests the Taoiseach is awaiting \u201cfeedback\u201d on whether it would be possible to include services. What the Taoiseach actually said is the feedback he has already received suggests it would not be possible to include services in the legislation. <\/p>\n

The proposed Bill already includes a ban on trade in goods, but including services in the Bill is a key demand of pro-Palestinian campaigners and Opposition parties. T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris<\/a> has said he wants to include a ban on services if it is legally possible. In the D\u00e1il, Mr Martin said that he needed to discuss the matter with the T\u00e1naiste.<\/p>\n

\"FineFine Gael presidential Candidate Heather Humphreys. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill <\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Fine Gael presidential candidate Heather Humphreys<\/a> said she was in favour of including services, which has also been recommended by the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee. The other presidential candidate, Catherine Connolly, is strongly in favour of including services.<\/p>\n

Mr Harris has repeatedly said he agrees with people who want to include services under the provisions of the Bill \u2013 but has also said that the Government needs to get the advice of Attorney General Rossa Fanning on whether this is legally possible.<\/p>\n

It is understood while the issue has been discussed at the highest level in Government, no formal advice has been issued and no firm decision has been made. But there is no expectation among some senior figures that the Bill will be amended to include services.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ireland set to feel the heat from Washington\u2019s Maga brigade over Occupied Territories BillOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Mr Harris was non-committal. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs the T\u00e1naiste has said repeatedly, he is committed to passing the Occupied Territories Bill and work is advancing across a number of strands at official level as well as engagement at EU and international levels with like-minded partners,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe T\u00e1naiste has said that he has no policy difference with the Opposition in relation to the inclusion of services; however, any legislation must be legally robust and withstand challenge. He expects to engage further with Government colleagues and the Attorney General on these issues in the coming weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Government is said to be increasingly unlikely to include trade in services in the scope of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,3428,6,555,19,17,11,12,15,16,5765,5,7826,44,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-123092","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-government","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-heather-humphreys","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-main-news","21":"tag-mainnews","22":"tag-micheal-martin","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-occupied-territories-bill","25":"tag-simon-harris","26":"tag-top-stories","27":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}