I want to put on record my disappointment yesterday with the Government's announcement on the occupied territories Bill. What has been proposed is a partial ban. It is a ban on the importation of physical goods from the illegal Israeli settlements, that is, the dates and olives grown on stolen Palestinian farmland. It is welcome as far as it goes but it deliberately excludes trade in services. The technology companies, tourism platforms and digital and IT firms that sustain those settlements are being let off the hook entirely. It is a significantly and deeply disappointing walk-back that will fundamentally undermine the impact of the legislation.

In the West Bank right now, Palestinian families are being driven off their land at gunpoint and their homes and farms are being seized. Communities are being forcibly displaced. Médecins sans Frontières recently documented the case of a family of six who were shot while simply driving home. Only two sons survived. Their brothers were five and seven years old. Western governments have rightly condemned such actions as illegal, yet we continue to trade with the very settlements sustaining them. That is what the occupied territories Bill is meant to address. The Government's argument that including services is not legally implementable is misleading, and one example puts that beyond doubt. Last year, Spain passed legislation banning trade in certain services with Israeli settlements. Spain is bound by exactly the same EU rules as Ireland is but it did it and it is working. Tourism platforms, digital companies, Airbnb providers and others can no longer provide support to those settlements. That was implemented in a matter of weeks. If Spain can do it, why can Ireland not do the same?

When the Bill reaches the floor of the Dáil in the coming weeks, I will work on amendments with colleagues and, I hope, Opposition Members. I ask my colleagues here to support those amendments because they are absolutely vital. My position on this has been the same since 2018 and it is not going to change now. I urge people to support the occupied territories Bill in its entirety. In 2014, when Russia occupied part of Ukraine, Ireland rightly implemented a ban on both goods and services. That ban has been in place and working for 12 years. All we are asking is that the same standard be applied in this case. If Irish businesses can be required by law to stop providing services to Russian companies tearing up Ukraine, why can they not be asked to do the same in respect of Israeli companies tearing apart and destroying the West Bank?