I thank the Minister for her statement. I want to be constructive in the time I have. I welcome the fact that we, belatedly, have an occupied territories Bill. I rise here with my colleagues in the Labour Party to be critical of the Government for failing to include services because I personally feel, and we in the Opposition can feel, almost by extension, the orange fingerprints of Donald Trump all over the exclusion of services from the Bill. There has been so much economic scaremongering and attempted bullying coming from the US in relation to this matter. It is important to remember that many of the letters that were written came from a small but vocal minority of people from the US Congress. There is a precedent for the inclusion of services. We have seen how it can be done in Spain. We have also seen how it has not resulted in economic Armageddon. I would argue that if Spain can take a principled, legally sound stand without bringing economic ruin to its industries, then so can Ireland. If we ban the import of goods but allow the exchange of lucrative services, we are making a mockery of our own values and we are giving a green light to economic activity that entrenches this illegal occupation. An occupied territories Bill without services is a Bill without much impact. I very conscious that we are taking on the EU Presidency. As I said last night in the Chamber, we had Kaja Kallas only 200 metres from us last night. As we take up the EU Presidency, it is an opportunity for us to lead by example, which I believe we have done, but we need to go further than we are going with this Bill. While we are one of the first countries to pass this legislation, I urge the Government not to introduce a watered-down Bill because every EU member state that follows will use our weak legislation not as a bar, but as a floor to do the bare minimum. When we look at the systematic torture that Israel is inflicting upon Palestinians, including the use of sexual violence, the persecution and torture of political prisoners and the indiscriminate shooting of innocent children, it shows us clearly why now is the time for us, as a country, to be brave and take a stance. I acknowledge that this Bill goes some way towards taking that stance but as the ICJ and international law does not distinguish between goods and services, we need to go further.

Sentiment score: -0.07