2026-05-12

I move: That leave be granted to introduce Bill entitled an Act to amend the Comptroller and Auditor General (Amendment) Act 1993 to require the Comptroller and Auditor General to conduct a due diligence review of the State’s relations with Israel in line with the legal analysis and recommendations of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel on implementation of the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on the Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. I will share time with Deputies Ó Laoghaire, Ní Raghallaigh and Brady. "We are not asking for your solidarity. We want you to stop doing us active harm." This is the message of Omar Barghouti, founder of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which I hosted here in Leinster House in my role as convenor of the Ireland-Palestine parliamentary friendship group. Our State's complicity is doing Palestinians active harm. Complicity in genocide, apartheid and occupation is incredibly serious and requires immediate actions, including sanctions against the State of Israel, an arms embargo, and the enactment of the occupied territories Bill and the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill. These are all actions we can and should take but that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael refuse to. This week, we approach Nakba Day, 15 May. This is a day when the catastrophe perpetrated against the Palestinian people since 1948 is marked around the world. Horrors beyond our worst fears continue to unfold before our very eyes. Yesterday, The New York Times published an article by Nicholas Kristof entitled "The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians". This reported on the brutal sexual abuse of male and female Palestinians at the hands of Israeli prison guards, soldiers, settlers and interrogators. The United Nations has reported that sexual violence has become standard operating procedure. We in Ireland cannot be complicit in facilitating such a brutal regime. That is why this Bill, sponsored by Deputies Brady, Ó Laoghaire and Ní Raghallaigh and me, is before the House today. It proposes one thing that we are entitled to do without awaiting agreement at EU level or clutching at the excuse that international law is complex. We propose an audit of our State's complicity. A due diligence audit is not just something we can do but something we are required to do under international law. That is the legal advice of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel on the implementation of the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel. It states: Each State is obliged to undertake a thorough due diligence review of its aid and assistance to Israel and determine whether it is being used by Israel to support and maintain the unlawful occupation. This is stated in light of the fact that "all States are under an obligation not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the unlawful occupation." This is also the advice of the leading human rights lawyer Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, who recently made a similar call before the Oireachtas foreign affairs committee. The Hague Group of 12 nations agreed last July to commence an urgent review of all public contracts to prevent public institutions and their funds from supporting Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian territory and entrenching its unlawful presence. Ireland is falling behind.

Tacaím leis an mBille agus tréaslaím leis an Teachta Ó Snodaigh as a chuid oibre air seo ar feadh tamall fada. I commend Deputy Ó Snodaigh on his work on this over a considerable period of time. We have had many debates in this Chamber and, unfortunately, some attention has slipped away from Palestine and from the appalling atrocities that continue there despite so-called ceasefire. People are being killed daily but more fundamentally in a long term way the ground for a Palestinian state is being eroded constantly by the actions of Israel. Often there are debates about what we can do since we are a small country but there are actions we can undertake. Clearly, the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice makes it clear that states have an obligation to ensure they audit their processes, relations and trade to ensure states are not complicit. We can and should do this. There is nothing constraining us from doing it. This is the minimum we can do in the context of a situation that daily erodes the rights of the Palestinian people.

I concur with my colleagues. This is an important piece of legislation given the Government's systemic failure to take meaningful action against the genocide and apartheid regime of Israel against the Palestinians. A number of pieces of legislation were brought forward previously, including my illegal Israeli settlement divestment Bill. The Government has made us stakeholders in the illegal practice of apartheid in the West Bank by having shares-----

Is the Bill opposed?

-----in the illegal occupation-----

Time is up, Deputy.

This is an important piece of legislation.

Is the Bill opposed?

It is not opposed.

Since this is a Private Members' Bill, Second Stage must, under Standing Orders, be taken in Private Members' time.

I move: "The Bill be taken in Private Members' time."