The European Union’s inability to come to a unified position on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is a “huge stain” on the bloc, the Taoiseach has said.
Speaking in Brussels on Wednesday, Micheál Martin said there has to be “consequences” for Israel’s human rights violations during its 20-month bombardment and invasion of Gaza.
“Europe needs to speak with a very strong voice, to end this blockade and get vital humanitarian aid into the population of Gaza, otherwise Europe will not have credibility,” he said.
The Fianna Fáil leader was speaking ahead of an EU summit on Thursday where leaders will consider a report by the bloc’s diplomatic service from last week that said Israel had breached its human rights obligations under the terms of a pact governing its ties with the EU. Israel’s foreign ministry has rejected the report as a “moral and methodological failure”.
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Meanwhile, the Irish Government has published draft legislation to prohibit the sale in Ireland of Israeli goods produced in the occupied Palestinian territories.
It makes no reference to services being subject to a similar ban.
The draft of the Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 was published on Wednesday by Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Harris.
The draft will now be sent for pre-legislative scrutiny by the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee, chaired by Fianna Fáil TD John Lahart.
The main section of the Bill provides that the importation of goods originating in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip will be prohibited in Ireland.
The goods will be deemed as goods subject to prohibition, or banned from importation, and those importing them may be charged with an offence under the Customs Act 2015.
The draft Bill also sets out that the Minister for Foreign Affairs will have the powers to outline what territories are covered by the Act.
The Minister will have the power to prescribe the postal codes of Israeli settlements located in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.
The committee is expected to begin its work on the draft legislation immediately. Mr Lahart has said he will seek extra sitting sessions to allow it to complete pre-legislative scrutiny before the summer recess.
In an accompanying letter to the committee, Mr Harris said the scheme delivers on Government commitments but notes the limitations under EU law.
“The scheme has been prepared having regard to the exclusive competence of the European Union in the field of external trade and the very limited basis on which an EU member state may adopt measures in that field.”
The issue that will be most contentious during the foreign affairs committee’s deliberations about the Bill will be whether or not services should be included. For example, there is a substantial holiday-let sector in the settlements which would not be captured in the current draft Bill.
On Tuesday, Mr Harris’s spokesman said the legal advice from the Department of Foreign Affairs is that under EU law would not allow services to be included.
However, Mr Harris has now sought an opinion from Attorney General Rossa Fanning on whether, under EU law, it would be permissible for any of the EU states to do that.
The Government has said it has no objection to services being included, but noted the inclusion of services might make the legislation run contrary to EU law.
Senator Frances Black drafted the original Bill in 2018 and has campaigned for it to become law since then. She said on Wednesday she was confident the committee will have completed its work before the summer recess, allowing for the full Bill to be published in early autumn.
Separately, Ms Black has been mentioned as a possible candidate in the presidential election.
She said she was now 99 per cent sure she would not be a candidate, and said no party, or person, had approached her with a view to asking her to run.
“I am still open to that conversation but I am at this point so preoccupied with the occupied territories Bill that I do not have time to think about other issues,” she said.
