The Government’s Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2026 will progress through its final stages in the Dáil this afternoon.
The Government has allocated just 90 minutes to debate 23 amendments. People Before Profit and other opposition parties called for more time for the debate but the Government refused.
People Before Profit’s Paul Murphy will use his speaking time in the debate this afternoon to support amendments to the Bill to include a ban on services.
Paul Murphy said:
“The Government has allocated just 90 minutes for the final stage of its Occupied Palestinian Territories (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill. This is nowhere near enough to deal with many amendments to the Bill that have been submitted, and many amendments will not be reached in today’s final Dáil debate on the Bill.
“This cynical manoeuvre is entirely consistent with Fianna Fáil’s and Fine Gael’s years of delaying tactics on Frances Black’s Occupied Territories Bill and the exclusion of services from the ban.
“An estimated 70% of trade with the occupied territories is in services. This afternoon I will use my time in the last Dáil debate on the Bill to demand the inclusion of services in the ban. Without a ban on services, the original intention of the Occupied Territories Bill will be gutted. We all know this is because the Government is bending over backwards to appease the Trump administration and US multinationals. It is a betrayal of the people of Palestine and an act of utter moral bankruptcy.
“Trade in goods and services with the occupied territories should be banned now and the Government should then move immediately to introduce comprehensive sanctions on Israel to force the end of its occupation, its apartheid and its genocide in Gaza.”