148. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment the reason his Department sanctioned the export of €20 million worth of dual-use technology to the Israel Defense Forces, IDF, and Israeli Ministry of Defense in 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45653/26]

Sentiment score: 0.15

There may have been other questions earlier on this topic. I am looking forward to hearing the Minister's answer. It is difficult to comprehend how during a genocide, licences were approved, in particular for 2024, for dual-use goods for which the end user was the IDF and the department of defence in Israel. The value was €20 million. It is quite extraordinary. It is difficult to understand how such applications could have been approved in the context of such appalling crimes against humanity. They should not have been approved. I welcome that has now stopped, but we need answers about why they were approved.

Sentiment score: 0.07

The Minister said there is no change in policy. I find that hard to gather when for five years in a row licences were approved for significant sums of money and in the past two years, they have not been. I welcome that. The Minister said there has not been a policy change. I would say there has been and I welcome it. It is the right thing to do. However, drilling into what the Minister said, the policy of the EU broadly speaking - appropriately - is that goods primarily used for civilian uses that could potentially be used for military uses, require a double check. They come back to the relevant agency in the state. That state then decides whether it is appropriate and whether the state is confident the end user will be civilian and will use it for a civilian purpose or for a military purpose. The end user here was the Israel Defense Forces, IDF, and the Israel Ministry of Defense in the context of tens of thousands of people, including tens of thousands of children, being killed. The Department was asked to sign off on this licence and it did. It did so three times to a value of €20 million in 2024. Why did it do so?

Sentiment score: 0.11

It had all the information, unless the Minister can tell me otherwise and the Department did not have the information that it would end up in that place.

Sentiment score: 0.00

There has to be a review. We are talking about millions of euro worth of goods ending up in the hands of the IDF and the Ministry of Defense in Israel, while they kill tens of thousands of civilians. There should be a review. There absolutely should. The Minister has talked around it. The Government has done things in relation to Palestine that we have welcomed and other things that did not go far enough compared with other European countries. The standard in Europe is undoubtedly low and Ireland is perhaps above that but looking beyond that internationally, it is not anything to shout about. However, the fundamental point, which the Minister has not answered, is that the Department was given the opportunity to refuse those licences. These landed in the Department. The framework the European Union created ensures the decision comes back to the Department, which makes a determination about whether there is a risk of the goods ending up in military situations beyond civilian use. The Department seems to have been satisfied there was no problem. Surely, it would have had information about where it was going to end up.

Sentiment score: 0.03

Why was it signed off? That is the key question, which the Minister has not answered.

Sentiment score: 0.00