Sir, – Rationalising the Government’s about-face on the Occupied Territories Bill, Tánaiste Micheál Martin says that “the judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the occupied Palestinian territories last summer had changed the context for the Bill” (“Ban on trade with Israeli occupied territories could be passed into law, says Tánaiste”, News, October 17th).
The Tánaiste’s citation of the ICJ advisory opinion as the ostensible gamechanger seems dubious. Surely if “trade is an EU competency”, as per the Government’s long-standing mantra, then trade remains “an EU competency”. It is hard to avoid the suspicion that the Government felt the mounting pressure, and cited the ICJ advisory opinion to justify its U-turn.
The Tánaiste’s insistence that “the existing Bill would need to be redrafted and amended very substantively given the advice we have received” is curious. The Bill was partly drafted by the Tánaiste’s party colleague Niall Collins TD, and backed by legal experts.
Could it be that Government figures want to have their cake and eat it? This way, they can rationalise an indefinite delay in the Bill’s enactment, reaping the benefits in the general election, while scheduling any controversy until afterwards.
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As ever in Irish politics, when the arguments have been made and won, and our nation teeters on the cusp of a landmark achievement, it suddenly turns out that everyone was working toward this all along. Nobody ever opposed social progress; certain figures were simply “the adults in the room”, giving measures their due scrutiny.
The credit for this tremendous achievement belongs to the human rights activists, the Opposition parties, those who worked tirelessly for the day that Ireland will finally end its complicity in expansionist war crimes worldwide. – Yours, etc,
DAVID MURPHY,
Clonskeagh,
Dublin 14.