Shareholders of Cement Roadstone Holdings should withdraw their investment from a "wall of shame" security barrier being built by Israel in the West Bank, it was claimed today.
Senator Terry Leyden said CRH's involvement in the construction of the 600km structure was undermining the support and financial assistance given to Palestinians by the Government.
The Fianna Fail senator was part of a five-member parliamentary delegation that visited the West Bank last month.
Mr Leyden told today's Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee: "We are pumping money into a country and supporting a regime in Israel that is undermining the rights of the Palestinian people and doing a great disservice to the Irish people.
"They have accepted, quite frankly, the 30 pieces of silver."
Israel is building the 30-foot barrier along the West Bank to block Palestinian suicide bombers from entering its state. But Palestinians claim it separates farmers from their fields, workers from their jobs and children from their schools in many areas.
"I feel embarrassed by the involvement of CRH in the building of the wall of shame around the Occupied Territories," Mr Leyden added.
The senator said he received a letter from CRH managing director Declan Doyle on the issue. Mr Leyden quoted Mr Doyle from the letter as saying: "We are currently ranked among sector leaders by a number of independent agencies who certify that we conduct business in an ethical and socially-responsible way."
But Mr Leyden called on CRH's shareholders to withdraw all investment in the security barrier. "What they are doing as an individual Irish company is undermining the great work that we are doing," he said.
The committee published a report of its previous debates on overseas development aid and called on the Government to firmly commit it to achieving 0.7 per cent of GNP by 2010. The report will be presented to Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern.