Ruth Coppinger
Dublin West · People Before Profit-Solidarity · Ireland
“Next Wednesday, the trial continues of the Ulm five, including the Irish citizen, Daniel Tatlow-Devally. A delegation of TDs and Senators, including me, will attend the trial in Stuttgart next week.”
“This man said of one woman that he would attach her to a concrete block. He said of another that he would set fire to her. Should this person be getting a pay off from the Army? No, of course, he should not. He should have been put on trial.”
“I have very little time left, but I want to put on record that the woman in question was abused by an Army officer using military equipment and surveillance technology, which is extremely scary. She made a complaint, which has never been pursued.”
“When is the victims of crime Act 2017 going to apply the Army? The Women of Honour have pushed for change so that if there is abuse within the Army there will, we hope, be mechanisms to deal with that, but what about women who are abused by Army personnel who are not in the Army?”
“This officer was involved in a GoFundMe campaign, where rapists' names were used as a joke by the various men who contributed to it. I do not think rape is funny and the Army should not either. That GoFundMe campaign was left up for a long time. Why is the Army a law unto itself in relation to gender-based violence?”
“The victim's belief is that the military prosecutor has evidence of a very dangerous man but for some reason, the Army does not seem to be concerned because it has not prosecuted him on those charges. Why would the Army not want to prosecute somebody? Are we at war or something? Why is it so secretive?”
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“When it was forced to do so by community action and by communities getting organised and challenging the way the company was operating, the council started to take notice. The local authority started to act. I have a list of issues that residents have raised with me and I am directly using the words they have sent me. How is it that commercial drone delivery operations were permitted by this Government to roll out without prior public consultation and without environmental or health impact assessments being done? For two years, Manna Air Delivery was granted a licence by the Irish Aviation Authority, IAA, and was able to bypass public consultation. It provided its own statements without any objective evidence concerning noise and environmental impact.”
“This is not the first time I have raised the issue of commercial drone fast-food deliveries in residential areas. Last week, we had the announcement from Manna Air Delivery, which was the company operating in Dublin 15 and Cork, that it is suspending and pulling out of Ireland. Residents who were suffering as a result of the noise and lack of privacy, and who had wildlife concerns, etc., but who particularly suffered as a result of the noise, peace and quiet in their back gardens and neighbours having been lost, are celebrating. This technology was very invasive. It was brought in without any proper consultation. The company seemed to operate without having to go for planning permission.”
“I hope that they could be incorporated into the system because obviously people would not be excluded. We cannot move forward unless there is a huge increase in the number of staff and buildings available. Schools can also be used much more than they are. After school hours the premises are all there. A lot of parents have raised that, and schools are saying "No" when they are asked.”
“I do get that it is the first step but it is a very slow process. It needs to be a lot more ambitious and radical. It took long enough for a realisation that the State needed to lead on childcare in Ireland. In other countries, it is par for the course. Things like training schools have to be set up where people would be guaranteed decent pay and conditions. It is appalling what many childcare workers are paid. It would be good if the State was able to underwrite it in the same way it does for education, by keeping electricity and insurance costs down, because that is what is breaking an awful lot of the private childcare providers. By the way, there are a lot of excellent private childcare providers. It is not their fault. A lot of them obviously love children, while others are just doing it as a big business.”
“We need preschool to be provided in the same way that primary and secondary are, underpinned by the State, with childcare workers trained by the State and given decent pay and conditions to attract them into the profession. We know it is an horrifically unstable profession and very badly paid - female-centred, as usual. I know there is a consultation but the Minister needs to look at that long-term strategy.”
“The problem is that the private childcare model is being heavily subsidised by the State, but even with these subsidies it is simply not working. Discovery Montessori in Castleknock has written to TDs, for example, in my area. It is the latest childcare provider saying that the core funding model cannot work for it. The fee freezes mean that it would not be able to meet its costs in wages, utilities, insurance, etc. I do not have a way of checking out all of those claims, but what I will say is that there is no way we can provide quality childcare with decent pay under the private model. The Minister used to be Minister for education.”
“In 2024, parties were falling over themselves, as we know, including the Minister’s, promising parents €200 a month childcare. The latest Fianna Fáil meeting was talking about €786 per month, possibly, later on this year, so it will be like €200 a week will be nearer the mark. However, the real problem we have is childcare provision. The private childcare model is simply not working for parents. With so many more providers falling out of the sector, we need a public model.”
“It is time now to abolish the Special Criminal Court, to get rid of the Offences against the State Act and to stop using this as an excuse again and again each year.”
“Young people have been charged with terrorist acts, when the offence should have been criminal damage at most, for challenging companies that were producing weaponry to be sent to Palestine to kill people. They will be heroes in history in the future but now they are imprisoned as terrorists. This Government last year transposed an EU directive as to what constitutes terrorist acts. There is a definite movement in the direction of repressive legislation by so many governments. That EU directive includes grounds such as receiving training, travelling for the purpose of terrorism and public provocation to commit a terrorist offence - really dangerous stuff that can definitely be used against activists, including Palestine solidarity campaigners, environmental activists and many others in the future.”
“I find it highly ironic that we were in here about two weeks ago talking about counselling notes and the Minister of State's colleague stood opposite me and told us there was no way in the wide earthly world their use could be outlawed because of the right to a fair trial being paramount in Ireland. One of the women made an excellent point: how come there is a Special Criminal Court then? You can now waive these rights when it suits you, but the Government could not intervene, for example, to do something that actually affects so many victims of crime. It is highly ironic. We have seen in Britain in recent times things that we never thought would happen.”
“Consistently, socialists who have been elected here have come in and expressed our opposition to these powers being extended. We are in agreement with the ICCL, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, the UN human rights committee, Amnesty International, and a myriad of legal experts and civil liberties campaigners. The Irish Government likes to portray our country as a liberal democracy, yet it has this parallel legal system where there are no juries. The ICCL highlighted six defects in its submission on this issue, including lack of a jury; the dual role of judges as judge and jury; the extensive powers of the DPP; the claiming of privilege by gardaí; and the acceptance of beliefs and inferences as actual evidence. Nowhere else accepts secret evidence from police officers as being sufficient to send somebody to jail.”
“Will he answer the question asked by a Fine Gael Deputy before he came into the Chamber as to how the increase in carbon emissions will be made up for elsewhere in the economy and in society? We should know that before we vote on this Bill.”
“In 2024, 6,700 more people were affected by airport noise, which was a big increase on the previous year. Another issue is the lack of democracy. Fingal County Council will have any controls in relation to the airport taken from it, and the Minister is happy with that. It is being done because elected councillors are much closer to communities and residents. It is anti-democratic. As I said, airport noise in the Fingal area leads to a huge number of health issues and the lifting of the passenger cap will make that situation worse. The Minister is from one of the impacted areas. The lifting of a passenger cap in any airport during a climate emergency would have to be queried.”
“There are issues for residents. An earlier speaker said that everyone living in a house near the airport knew this would happen. In fact, people did not know. There are lots of much older communities in the area that predate the airport. People certainly did not know there would be relentless growth of the airport. The impact of airport noise on people's sleep is being studied worldwide, including by Dr. John Garvey, director of the sleep laboratory at St. Vincent's hospital. His evidence shows that airport noise leads to more cardiovascular issues in affected areas and those statistics are backed up internationally. We do not know what impact the lifting of the cap will have specifically on night flights but it will mean many more flights and much more noise for those impacted.”
“The other issue is that the Bill comes at the request of Ryanair and the American airlines. Ryanair's carbon emissions are now 50% higher than they were in 2019, which is the largest increase among the top 20 most polluting airlines worldwide. There are real environmental issues associated with lifting the passenger cap. When so much is already going through Dublin, there are implications for balanced regional development. Is there any other airport without a rail line that would lift its passenger cap? It is absolutely farcical that people walking out of Dublin Airport have to get a bus or taxi. I do not know of any other capital where there is talk of enlarging its airport in that situation. There will be increased car traffic as a result. A metro line from the airport to the city is in the dim and distant future.”
“I am shocked that some of those who complain about Dublin getting everything are okay with lifting the passenger cap on Dublin Airport. Currently, Dublin gets ten times more passengers than Cork. Dublin is the capital city but it does not have ten times the population of Cork. After this measure, it is estimated that passenger numbers will increase by 22% by 2031. Aviation accounts for approximately 6% of our carbon emissions, with Dublin Airport making up some 85% of that. What we have seen from the Government is that the environment just does not matter. Whether it is data centres or flights, the message is that we are open for business no matter what. A Fine Gael Deputy asked how this measure will be made up for elsewhere in the economy. No answer has been given but it seems that Deputy will line up to vote for the Bill.”
“If there is anything we do not need during a climate emergency when we are literally having a heatwave right now - we had one two weeks ago and we will probably have many more over the rest of the summer - and when the world is literally burning, it is the Minister is coming in today to lift the passenger cap on flights at Dublin Airport. People are saying that we need this for growth. We need to do something about the climate emergency and we should actually be reducing flights rather than aiming to increase them in any way, shape or form. It has been amusing to listen to the contributions of some people who normally jump up and down about Dublin being the fount of all evil. This proposal is really against balanced regional development.”
“It should be available to all, of course, but I just cite the fact that insurance companies are not providing insurance cover for many conditions. This results in families having to do GoFundMe to raise money to go abroad, all when people are in such dire health situations. The family in question have done so and have had to raise huge amounts of money. This is treatment inequality. Cutting-edge treatments like DCT are available in other European countries but are not available in Ireland despite the fact that a lot of the pharmaceuticals in question are manufactured in this country up the road from where I live. There are also health insurance barriers and systemic delays. Even basic administrative requirements such as requesting medical records to go to another country add up with regard to people's life expectancy and quality of life.”
“I read that givinostat has now been approved. I am asking the Minister of State to ensure that this is moved as quickly as possible so that givinostat benefits as many as possible. I want to mention a case that was brought to my attention of a young woman, called Debbie, who has been diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour, a WHO grade 4 glioblastoma. As the House can imagine, she has undergone extensive neurosurgery removing huge parts of her brain, as well as radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The problem is this. There is a revolutionary second-line treatment available called dendritic cell therapy, DCT, available in Germany. It has been overwhelmingly positive in its results in the first few years at trial stage. Debbie has comprehensive health insurance but this therapy is not available on VHI anyway.”
“I recall in the Dáil about a decade ago when Leo Varadkar was the Minister for Health. He said that he would almost become a socialist when it comes to the issue of the drug companies and the health industry. It did not quite work, obviously. Here we are again asking why it is taking so long for drugs to be approved in this country. These are drugs that we know are having life-saving impacts. We are a small country so, in some ways, a rare disease in a small country is even more difficult. Cystic fibrosis is very common in Ireland, yet that took ages as well. I echo the calls for the treatments for Friedreich's ataxia and Duchenne muscular dystrophy, DMD, to be approved as quickly as possible. I spoke on that issue a year ago in the Dáil. Families are going through heartbreak. DMD in particular is a progressive disease.”
“Did it not shamefully twist the words of the most hard-pressed and vulnerable sports association? Will the Tánaiste call on the FAI to come in front of an Oireachtas committee to explain this and the entire venture? I refer also to the sports Ministers who are backing these immoral games and shameful decision.”
“The FAI released a statement on 12 June justifying playing Israel behind closed doors and outside Ireland. It spoke of consultation with stakeholders, in particular the Palestinian Football Association which the statement strongly implied backed the FAI's position. Today, the Palestinian Football Association has had to release a statement saying it did not endorse or support the decision to proceed with the games: "[O]ur position regarding Israeli football remains unchanged and unequivocal." It stated that: "[T]he PFA categorically rejects any attempt to promote or impose matches with an occupying power that systematically targets Palestinian athletes and sports infrastructure." Did the FAI not deceive the people of Ireland and the global media with this claim?”
“Apart from the social issues of AI making people less critical and more stupid and causing problems academically, the impact on the environment is massive and it is not worth it. Any attempt to use renewables now is eaten up by the corollary of data centre usage. Ireland will significantly go past its greenhouse gas emission targets. We now have to say that we must stop any more data centres being established but there should also be a levy. These data centres need to be taxed to the hilt to pay for the damage they are doing.”
“They are already using up 22% of all electricity in the country, which is the highest figure in the world. Ireland is now the warning - the bogey man for other countries - in international publications of what not to do. We hear that €400 more a year is being paid for electricity. A total of €360 of that, on average, is estimated to be down to high data centre energy demand. Lower-income households - ordinary working-class people and single parents - are the victims of this because they pay more for energy than other people do. Ireland in particular has been singled out by the UN. I previously raised the Minister for Climate, Energy and Environment's complete fixation on AI.”
“If ever there was a Government policy that was just so reckless and servile, it is this policy of welcoming and allowing data centres at the cost of our environment but also now at the cost of the pockets of ordinary working-class people. For the second month in a row, Ireland has the highest electricity prices in Europe. They are 52% higher than the European average. The average household in the country is paying around €400 a year more for its electricity compared with the EU average and, incredibly, it pays twice as much per unit of electricity compared with some of the big data centres and the big companies. Plans for data centre expansion would see data centres use the same amount of power as every other electricity user in the country combined.”
“When I put the first repeal Bill 11 TDs voted for it. Let us have progress but let this not be a cover for backtracking on essential women's rights. We need to go forward and fight the tide that is pushing back against people's right to bodily autonomy. We have seen the religious right and far right in the US take away abortion rights and we cannot allow this to happen in Ireland.”
“A couple of weeks ago we were here with a Bill which had very important things about decriminalisation, things that the health spokesperson for Sinn Féin supported in 2021, because I found statements on it. There is backtracking going on and this was cover, but I am glad there is a Bill being put because I wanted to put such a Bill and I am delighted somebody else is doing it. It is also important not to rewrite history. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael did not win repeal. It was a grassroots movement that won repeal. There are people claiming here all the things they did for repeal. It is a bit like the GPO in 1916 and all that. Not everyone was there and some parties did not support this in the committee. In some parties no TDs supported it. It is very easy to jump on when everybody agrees. It is not easy when you are pioneering repeal Bills.”
“From talking to Women on Web when abortion was illegal and we were trying to help people access it safely, that group made the point that sometimes when women received the pills online they did not go ahead because they could clearly make that decision without pressure and stress, so that is not an excuse for being patronising towards women. I obviously welcome that Sinn Féin has put a Bill on abortion before the House, I think for the first time. I had a Bill on this I proposed on First Stage in January but I did not have the Private Members' time, so I am obviously glad for parties with more time to put these measures, but we cannot ignore the timing and the context here.”
“There were also recommendations on safe access zones and where conscientious objection blocks any provision in an area. In the corridor here today I heard two men discussing women's healthcare, as if we need more of that in this country. They made the claim there are 10,000 children alive because of the second visit. It is put out by people who seem to submit AI parliamentary questions or whatever. I have never seen anything to back that up. The IFPA has said 98% of women go ahead. I also want to make something clear.”
“This especially affects the marginalised, rural women, anyone who is a victim of domestic violence, people in homeless accommodation and people who not have public or car transport. The poorest in society always pay the price. Unnecessary delays just add barriers for women. There were other recommendations in the O'Shea report, such as that medical reasons be looked at again. I put on record that there is no other country where there is a distinction made between fatal and severe abnormality. It was only done in Ireland on the Oireachtas committee to avoid a debate about disability in the repeal referendum. Now people are suffering because of that. Imagine babies' bodies are still being transported in the backs of cars, as was testified only recently on the radio.”
“It is absolutely terrible that women and anybody who can become pregnant have had to wait eight years for this to happen. There has been no Government Bill and no Opposition party one up to now either. It is a crying shame that people have had to endure this. The O'Shea report made it very clear, especially about the three-day wait. I hate that term. It should be called a second doctor visit or something because people get the erroneous impression it just adds three days to the wait. However, particularly if an appointment is at the end of the week, if you have been trying to make a GP appointment for over a week then in most cases you will be waiting a week or two and in surveys that have been done a quarter of the women interviewed were waiting more than three days for the second visit.”
“The world has its first trillionaire, thanks largely to the policies of the likes of the EU and the G7. Should billionaires exist? Should a trillionaire exist? Elon Musk is now richer than 46% of the world's population, 3.8 billion people. He makes $1 million a minute. It has been estimated that $1 million could feed 5,500 for a year. It is wealth you cannot even spend. It is wealth that is not in any way used to further humanity. As we see, he is able to persuade kids in Belfast to throw rocks-----”
“The women's football team showed this in 2017 when they went on strike. If the Minister of State recalls, they refused to play against Czechia, which was a World Cup qualifier. They wore jerseys with "respect" written on them because they were facing discrimination in the way they were being treated. The Spanish women's football team refused to play until Rubiales was kicked out, so it can be done. Pressure can be put on to force change.”
“My position is not that Irish athletes should have to take a decision not to participate. Israel should be kicked out of all sporting competitions, in the same way Russia was. Does the Minister of State agree with Russia being banned? I would like an answer to that question. Failing the authorities taking action, because they are hugely corrupt, players and athletes may have to take a decision, and they should take a decision. I would prefer if they took it as a collective, and I think they will. We already had Séamus Coleman say the other night that it should not be down to the players, it should be down to the governing bodies and the Government, but the players do know what is right and wrong. They should not be put in that position, however. They should have the full support of their governing body and the State.”
“I will keep the pressure on the Government to underwrite any potential losses the FAI might endure. It is very clear, however, that the FAI has huge legal grounds because UEFA is breaching its own statutes and legislation. There is no way the FAI would face fines.”
“I keep hearing the Minister of State say "we will continue to do". What has the Government actually done? I know it has talked but here is the chance to actually do something. For example, under the ruling of the International Court of Justice, which this Government has signed up to, all states are obliged not to recognise Israel's illegal acts. Only this week, two Palestinian women footballers were kidnapped. We know ten clubs play in occupied Palestinian territories. We know Israel has killed 1,000 athletes. What more does the Government want? We know it is very afraid of the American multinationals but surely the Government could do something on this. It has failed to act. The staff and players have a legal right to freedom of expression.”
“The FAI receives €6 million per annum and is a public body under genocide laws, the European Convention of Human Rights and the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act.”
“I have heard the Minister of State say that sport and politics are separate. I thought that was quite amusing since he is a political representative in charge of sport, so obviously they are not separate. The Government, including the Tánaiste recently, has said it has no role whatsoever in the Irish team playing against Israel in the two upcoming fixtures and it is solely up to the FAI. I do not know if the Minister of State received a letter from a legal firm but he will receive one because he does have a role, as does the Government, under many laws and because the FAI is publicly funded and we have signed the Genocide Convention. Deputy McConalogue is the Minister of State with overarching responsibility for sport.”
“It is worth mentioning, and it is just a statement of fact - I am not going to comment on the trial as I do not want to impinge on the outcome of it - that counselling notes have been used in the Donaldson trial in the North. That just speaks to how these notes are being used all the time. I obviously cannot say too much more about it; I do not want to effect it in any way. How damaging that is for any complainant who might be a victim of child sexual abuse is unbelievable. The Minister says a total ban is impossible. I believe there are other contending rights. Let us look at having a referendum in this country because we cannot continue to have a system that traumatises survivors.”
“The Bill does not require the accused to engage with the facts of the case at application stage. It is very loose to have that it might be relevant to an issue in the case. The Minister has put in a real risk of an unfair trial, but then has watered it down with this huge proposal of in the interests of justice, which any decent lawyer is going to argue exists. He continues the violating practice of raw counselling records and notes being handed to teams of lawyers and the accused. The Minister could have put huge barriers in the way. He promised to do that, but it is still not done. The system he is bringing in seems to mirror the Canadian model, a system whereby there is a mandatory hearing for every single case. That is currently being reformed due to the damage that it has been found to have done to survivors.”
“In Tasmania, which is an Australian state, they have a total ban where the complainant must give their consent. That is another thing that the Minister is removing with his proposal. We all that there was a problem with the waiver, but he is taking away agency completely. He is taking away the right to say "No" to having a complainant's notes being handed over. He is passing it directly over to a judge who, by the way, is not trained in analysing therapy notes, how therapy works - the fluid way that it works - and the way people can potentially say things that could be seized upon. He is also not introducing very high bars. I will run through some of the key things that the proposal does not deal with. The explicit presumption of non-disclosure should have been written in.”
“Therapy is not evidence and these notes should have a massive health warning in any trial. I want to deal with some of the issues. The Minister launched the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre's annual report which showed a massive increase in calls. All of the service organisations say the same. They are people who have made contact, but there are so many people who do not report anything, do not talk to anybody and do not pursue a legal case. One of the reasons is because of this type of situation that is hostile, intimidating and retraumatising and where their own personal thoughts can be used against them by the person who did the most horrific crime to them. There is no doubt about it that character references are another major problem. Nearly every survivor has come out from court and named this as being something that should be changed.”
“Therapists and psychologists right until today have made a statement that the Minister's changes do not go far enough and he has not dealt with the issue at all. There are three options in front of us tonight but we do not have adequate time to debate them. There is the Minister's option, there is a total ban as advocated in my motion and another Sinn Féin motion, and then there are attempts by pretty much all of us to mitigate the damage that the Minister's proposal is still inflicting on complainants by asking the Minister to do what he promised to do, which is to put in a presumption of non-disclosure written into the law to make it much stronger. All the survivors have asked for that if the Bill is not going to ban it totally. There should be warnings issued by judges.”
“Hazel testified to the justice committee but has campaigned and organised protests, photo stunts, press conferences and so on. Sophie, I hope she does not mind me saying, has not attended therapy because this law exists. That is shocking and disgraceful that a young woman cannot avail of something because of how it might be used against her in trial. People are having to choose between trial or therapy. Unfortunately, with the changes that Minister proposes, that still exists because the chilling effect is still there. I wish to mention people who are not here and many who have been here before and packed out the Gallery: Lisa Marie, another survivor who has done a huge amount of work on this, and in particular, a therapist, Bairbre Kelly, who has paved the way in raising this in the professional bodies.”
“The situation is disgraceful that we are in. We are rushing and rushing on very important things. Everybody has already raised, including Deputy Carthy and others, about how important this issue was to the justice committee. This should not be happening. It is disgraceful. I have not seen a Bill being pushed through with so many different things in it in this way at this time. It could have been extended. I have been here for other debates that went on for much longer. I acknowledge the survivors who are in the Gallery tonight, including Hazel Bean, Paula Doyle and Sophie Brady. Hazel and Paula in particular have been campaigning on this. Telling the story does not do justice. They have campaigned in a real way in so many different forums. Paula, for example, was recognised by the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.”
“I was told by the Taoiseach earlier today that they would have their issues heard. He said extra time had been added on but it added on extra time to other issues but not this issue. There are very important issues under discussion here, and I am not blaming any Deputy for raising them, but we are going to be in a situation that, unless the Minister agrees now to extend this debate, survivors will leave this Chamber with this Bill rammed through without any of their amendments heard, without the Rape Crisis Centre’s amendments heard and lots of other issues. I think that is an absolute shame and it would send a horrifically bad message out about how this Government treats the issue of gender-based violence. I need to jump in now and support the call for the Order of Business to be changed. This is an absolute disgrace.”
“I ask Deputy Kelly to withdraw this amendment for a number of reasons. We are giving out about things being added onto this Bill. Here is another important issue being added on at this Stage. I do not agree with the amendment. As much of a nuisance as it is going in and out of this Dáil on many an occasion, I do not agree we should curb civil liberties and the right to protest late at night without proper discussion in this Dáil. This would introduce something that would remove any form of intimidation which can be interpreted in lots of ways. We are here in a disgraceful situation - and it is not the Deputy’s fault, it is the Minister’s fault – where there are survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in the Gallery tonight. They have been campaigning for a year and have spoken to the justice committee.”
“Of course, we are the second biggest trader with Israel primarily because of one company, Intel, which is a company that invested $25 billion in Israel last December. We are complicit up to our oxters in this genocide because of the economic model that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have slavishly developed. Even David McWilliams is saying how enmeshed the multinationals are with trade and that we are shamefully complicit, refusing to even ban sales to the IDF throughout 2024. The Government can take unilateral action. It was laughable listening to Deputy Currie reciting the mantra. She must be looking for a future ministership or something because Austria, Canada, France, New Zealand, Norway and the UK have taken action on these issues.”
“So, there is no reason Ireland cannot do it except for the form of capitalism the Government has developed in this country for the last 50 to 60 years whereby foreign direct investment and multinationals rule the roost and we do not have our own independent policy. I commend Francis Black. Apart from relentlessly pursuing this and having the patience of an absolute saint, I commend her for dealing with all the ins and outs of this. There is no legal impediment despite the nonsense the Taoiseach keeps saying. Hundreds of lawyers have said that. Now the Attorney General has said it was a political decision, not a legal decision. Academics Patrick Bresnihan and Patrick Brodie have pointed out that this has been done primarily for Airbnb and insurance brokers who advertise in those areas, and that seems to be why we now have this situation.”
“I am actually embarrassed for the Minister of State, to be frank. I remember in 2019 Fianna Fáil jumping up and down on this. It was Fianna Fáil that introduced the concept of this Bill and now here they are with a bit of an occupied territories Bill in a bit of the occupied territories. There is no moral backbone to this Government whatsoever, be it about trade, football or anything at all. Of our trade with the illegal settlements, 70% is in services according to Trócaire. Yet, due to pressure from US big business and capitalism, the Government has decided to leave that out of the Bill. The Bill is also focused on the West Bank goods specifically. We know it can be done because Spain and Slovenia have done it. They are two countries the Government says it is working with in Europe.”