179. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will reconsider what he stated earlier in February 2025 and ban services in the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018. [26772/25]
Sentiment score: -0.19
185. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will define the timeline for the enactment of the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018. [26771/25]
Sentiment score: 0.00
On a daily basis, we are seeing the latest version of the absolute horrors visited on Palestinians and the sheer loss of life. The estimates for those who are missing and crushed under buildings escalates every day. There is bombing of hospitals, schools, clinics and homes and the total destruction of Gaza and its infrastructure, roads, wastewater plants and everything else. It is clear what the Israeli game plan is here. It is the fragmentation and occupation of the West Bank. The news today was an escalation and expansion of that. It is clear that this is about wiping out not just the Palestinian state, but the Palestinian people. I appeal to the Tánaiste to have this Bill brought forward as quickly as possible and to include services in it. Services are estimated to account for 70% of trade. The ICJ ruling is clear as far as I am concerned. There is an obligation on us. We must do everything we can. It may not have a huge effect because the amount of trade is limited but look at what happened when the Dunnes Stores workers stopped selling South African fruit. Look at what that snowballed into. It brought apartheid down, or helped to bring it down.
Sentiment score: -0.10
My hearing is not 100%. I wanted to ask about the Tánaiste's conversation with Senator Black and the tail end of that. I am not trying to be awkward but would he mind repeating that again, please? I was not able to pick up correctly what he was saying. There are obviously different opinions out there and different legal opinion. This crisis puts a weight on us and many people are depending on us as a neutral company to act and show an example. The Palestinian ambassador will tell the Tánaiste this. People out in the street tell me this the whole time. People walking by Leinster House tell me. People on the streets down in County Laois tell me the whole time that we need to be doing more than we are. The old saying is that doctors differ and patients die. Solicitors and barristers differ but, my God, the level of death and destruction is absolutely horrific. I think we are all agreed on that. I have never seen anything like it. Will the Tánaiste clarify what he said? I apologise but my hearing is not 100%.
Sentiment score: -0.09
177. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the efforts being made by his Department and the Government to put pressure on the British Government to get a public inquiry in place around the murder of a person (details supplied) in Bellaghy, County Derry. [26774/25]
Sentiment score: -0.26
What pressure has been put on the British Government regarding a public inquiry into the murder of Sean Brown, a GAA official, on 19 April 1997 at Drumanee Road in Bellaghy when he was closing the GAA club? This was a hard-working member of the local community who had done significant voluntary work on behalf of the GAA and in the community and was highly respected. I know from people living on Drumanee Road at the time that there was shock and horror in that area and the wider Bellaghy area at what happened.
Sentiment score: -0.30
I am happy to hear about the Tánaiste's engagements on this issue. I mentioned that Sean Brown had a great reputation locally as a hard-working member of the local community and throughout the country with regard to the GAA. I commend the GAA on taking up this issue and the thousands of people who filled the roads and streets around Bellaghy in recent weeks. There was evidence of collusion. He was abducted and carried in a convoy that passed under cameras at Toomebridge RUC station. This fits in with the British counterinsurgency strategy that was set out by Frank Kitson 30 years earlier. It is sad to say that. It was the tail end of it. You were put up against the Good Friday Agreement. It was a clear strategy to lower the demands of the nationalist community. It would carry out these actions but keep them at arm's length. Great credit is due to the family. I urge the Tánaiste to throw everything he can at North-South meetings and intergovernmental conferences. Will he confirm whether the Taoiseach has taken it up with Keir Starmer? We do have proper relations between Great Britain and Ireland with the new British Government, which is welcome. It is better than it was. A number of matters are now being dealt with that had not been dealt with for a number of years.
Sentiment score: 0.22