I thank Deputy Gibney for outlining very clearly why services need to be included in this Bill. I will further develop that case because the Government is making a fundamental mistake in not including services. I will outline some of the international law, practice and findings in relation to the West Bank and what is going on. It is deeply disappointing that the Government has decided to exclude services from the Bill. This effectively significantly reduces the impact of the changes. The argument that Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh has made is that this is going to be more negative than if it had not been done at all. I will outline why that is the case. I will also outline the reality of what trade in services means right now and what is happening. We know what the ICJ has found. We know Ireland's legal obligations under that ruling in terms of settler violence and illegal settlements in the West Bank. I will talk about one specific case which will highlight the reality and take this discussion down to a human level when we talk about excluding services. It is the issue of Airbnb letting properties in the West Bank. I have done some research on this. There is a particular Israeli settlement called Tekoa near Tuqu’. In September last year, the Secretary General of the United Nations outlined how this particular settlement has expanded, removed Palestinians from their land and occupied it. In his report, the Secretary General found that Tekoa is one of the largest single land expansions from a single settlement to date. According to Palestinian residents in the Tuqu’ wilderness, settlers from the nearby outposts and settlements co-ordinate surveillance, harassment and attacks to force Palestinians from the area. This report is from September just gone. This settlement expansion and displacement of Palestinian herders was accompanied by the construction of military outposts, settler patrolled roads and a metal gate to restrict Palestinian access, indicating a degree of co-ordination between settlers and the state. Infrastructure projects include electricity lines, internal roads connecting the Tekoa settlement to the surrounding outposts, and earth mounds erected to block key routes, isolating Palestinian communities and restricting movement. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has documented settler attacks that forcibly displaced families from the wilderness around Tuqu’. One family of three brothers, their wives and eight children were displaced five times between October 2023 and late 2024. The report goes on. I went on to the Airbnb the site today and I looked up information on renting an Airbnb in Palestine. What came up but Tekoa, that very place. A number of properties are on Airbnb to rent on land that is illegally occupied and where the UN has found people have been displaced. One guest suite in Tekoa is advertised as a fully furnished luxury apartment isolated in the village. It is described as a 15-minute drive from Jerusalem. The apartment offers a locally authentic resting spot and a clear view of the desert where no one has set foot, which is of course completely untrue with regard to Palestinians. The advertisement also describes a "wide and beautifully decorated" house in another area where you can "forget all your worries here". This is what Ireland is facilitating via Airbnb and data centres in this country. We are facilitating that. The commercialisation, commodification and exploitation of illegal settler land is being facilitating by removing services from this Bill. To quote directly from a human rights barrister who is lauded by the Government in terms of her work on the ICG case: There is no basis in international law for differentiating between trade in goods and trade in services in the manner ... [you are proposing], and no international law justification for legislating for less than full compliance by Ireland with an international obligation articulated by the ICJ. That could not be clearer. The Government is effectively saying to the international law that it is not going to oblige by it. She went on to say: The flipside is that, if Ireland were to pass selective or restrictive legislation that did not fully comply with its obligations [which this is], that could have a very negative impact. It could be used by other states to say "this much but no more". It is not overstating the case to say that doing so could be extraordinarily harmful not only to the international legal order but to the very people and the very rights Ireland would be purporting to protect through this legislation ... We are at a stage when the fundamental precepts and structures of international law are under quite severe assault. For the Government to pass legislation that it does not believe to be fully compliant with its obligations would be deeply regrettable. Why is the Government trying to have passed a Bill that does not fulfil our obligations under the international Court of Justice ruling in relation to genocide? This Bill should not be passed as it is and should include services.

Sentiment score: -0.12