2026-06-16

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]

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.

First, there is no policy change in this area. My Department’s responsibilities centre around the control of exports of dual-use and military items under EU and national legislation. Controls on the export of dual-use items are administered by my Department in accordance with EU Regulation 2021/821 of the European Parliament and the Council setting up an EU regime for the control of exports, brokering, technical assistance, transit and transfer of dual-use items. The bulk of dual-use exports from Ireland, including those to end users in Israel, are mainstream business ICT products, both hardware and software. They are categorised as dual-use items as a consequence of the fact that they incorporate strong encryption for ICT security purposes. The primary purpose of export controls is not to block trade or exports, but to enable the free movement of legitimate goods, while ensuring that certain sensitive categories are subject to appropriate regulation. All export licence applications are considered by my officials in accordance with criteria set out in the relevant dual-use and military EU and national regulations and Ireland’s international obligations and responsibilities as members of non-proliferation regimes and export control arrangements. Each application is assessed individually by considering the nature of the items, the destination country, the identity of the end user and the intended use. Ireland’s decisions are guided by the EU position and its eight criteria, which include respect for human rights, international obligations, regional stability and risk of diversion to another end user or end use. The risk profile of an application is impacted by current geopolitical factors, the end user, the items in question and their ability to be misused. This risk profile can change on a case-by-case basis. If an application is deemed high risk and the exporter is unable to provide strong assurances to mitigate the risks identified, the application will be denied. As each application is treated on a case-by case basis, the available verifiable information at the time and associated risk assessments can change from application to application.

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?

Thank you, Deputy.

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.

As I said, there has been no policy change. The law is clear in the Control of Exports Act 2023, as set out by these Houses of which the Deputy is a Member, and in our European obligations under the framework and the eight criteria that have been established. Ireland has been firm and strong in recognising the State of Palestine. We have supported the people of Gaza through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, the competent authority which provides aid. We strongly supported it when Commissioner Várhelyi tried to unilaterally withdraw key supports to vulnerable citizens. We joined the ICJ case with South Africa and have called out the genocide in Gaza. That is where we are clear. It is all about where the end user is and what the purpose is. There has been no significant increase or decrease in applications being denied. The number of applications went down. That is not a change in policy by the Department. We do not control who comes to the Department seeking a licence. When the number of applications goes down, the value goes down. I assure the House there has been no change in policy whatsoever and no review has taken place either.

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.

Thank you, Deputy.

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

Very clearly, it is because it is in compliance with the law and with the criteria set down by the EU. We do not assess applications on the basis of made-up criteria. The criteria are grounded in the EU framework, which has eight clear measures, and the Control of Exports Act set down by this House in 2023. As I said in my substantive response, we have to satisfy ourselves that the end user will not bring any unintended consequences and that citizens are not being harmed by its actions. That is what we have to do. The criteria are clear. The robust procedures we have in the Department for doing that are crystal clear. Ireland has been at the forefront of the European Union in standing with the people of Gaza, in calling for the EU-Israel Association Agreement to be suspended - we were at the forefront of doing that - and supporting the people of Gaza financially. No country has called out as much as Ireland has and the Palestinian Authority recognises that clearly in all our meetings with it.