'Plenty of lip service' - Mary Lou McDonald accuses Government of 'gutting' Occupied Territories Bill

The Taoiseach criticized Sinn Féin for slogan-based rhetoric on the Government’s version of the Occupied Territories Bill. Mary Lou McDonald said pushing forward with hollowed-out legislation was a cop-out because the bill did not cover services, which account for 70% of exports from the occupied territories on the West Bank. She said the bill covered only goods, representing 30% of exports, despite Spain including both goods and services. Micheál Martin accused Sinn Féin of distorting facts and said Spain’s approach involved only advertising of services, which are intangible and therefore legally difficult to ban. He said the bill would cover about €200,000 of fruit and vegetables and warned that including services could invite attacks on Ireland’s tech sector. Independent Senator Frances Black called the claim that a services ban is not implementable deeply misleading, and noted she had tabled a draft bill years earlier.

"Mary Lou McDonald told the Dáil however that "pushing forward with hollowed-out legislation is a cop-out". She said the proposed legislation did not cover services, which represent 70pc of exports from the occupied territories on the West Bank. The Bill only addressed goods, which made up 30pc of such exports, she said. This was despite the fact that Spain's legislation had included both goods and services."

"But Micheál Martin accused Sinn Féin of distorting both the Government's position and the facts. The Taoiseach said the Spanish legislation did not include services, but only the advertising of services. The latter were intangible, and the legal advice was thus that banning services was "impossible to implement". He told Ms McDonald in the Dáil: "You obviously want to attack the Government, perhaps more than the Israeli Government.""

"But he admitted the legislation would only address about €200,000 worth of "fruit and vegetables" from the occupied territories. To include services would also invite "potential attack" on a tech sector, "providing 250,000 jobs in this country," he said, because it was not the case that Irish legislation would be ignored. Mr Martin appeared to reference American criticism of Ireland in relation to Israel, saying there had been attacks on the Government's position."

"Meanwhile, Independent Senator Frances Black said the Government's claim that a ban on trade in services under the Occupied Territories Bill is not implementable, is "deeply misleading". Senator Black, who first tabled the draft piece of legislation eight years ago, said the legislat"

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