Sinn Féin has clashed with the Tánaiste over the Occupied Territories Bill, with the party’s foreign affairs spokesman angrily calling remarks by Micheál Martin “bullshit” in a Oireachtas committee.
The Foreign Affairs Committee was on Tuesday hearing from Mr Martin on the progress of the Occupied Territories Bill, which the Government has said it wants to move forward - but only after substantial redrafting which will not be possible before the calling of a general election, expected this week.
The Bill would ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.
During a tense exchange with Mr Martin, Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy questioned the Government and Fianna Fáil’s commitment to moving forward with the legislation.
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The Fianna Fáil leader in turn accused the Cavan-Monaghan TD of not raising the Palestinian question in the United States, where, he said, the party has significant influence.
“That’s bullshit and you know it,” Mr Carthy angrily responded, saying he had raised the issue in every interaction he had with American stakeholders.
The Tánaiste told the committee he wanted amendments to the Bill to be ready for the next government to pick up immediately when it came to power, and that the next administration could go straight to committee with it if it wanted.
Mr Martin earlier told the committee that an advisory opinion issued over the summer by the International Court of Justice “has changed the legal context” for the Bill, which had stalled for years before the current Government sought renewed advice on its progress from the Attorney General.
“It is a significant moment, and it was a significant moment,” he said, in both Europe and Ireland.
He said that ICJ conclusions were “entirely consistent” with arguments made by the AG on Ireland’s behalf.
The Bill in its present form, he said, is incompatible with EU law and the Constitution. Amendments, he said, could bring it into line and reduce the risk. He said the amendments were not merely technical and substantive amendments would be needed to “most if not all” the sections of the Bill.
Mr Carthy said the Tánaiste “should be ashamed” of his party’s actions. He accused him of failing to progress the Bill during the lifetime of the current government and claimed ianna Fáil and the Greens had given up on the Bill in exchange for seats at the Cabinet table in 2020.
He said Mr Martin needed to be more clear on what substantive changes would be needed to the Bill, and challenged him to produce a single example of what Ireland had done to restrict trade with Israel since the ICJ opinion in July. He asked whether the Bill would include trade in both goods and services.
“I cannot ram through a Bill that is unconstitutional,” Mr Martin told the Cavan-Monaghan TD. “This will be challenged, this could go right to the European courts.”
Mr Martin argued the Bill needed to be robust enough to survive any such challenge.
Sinn Féin insisted that amendments could be brought forward and that the Bill could be passed by the Oireachtas in the coming days, before the election is called.
“Bring your amendments to committee right now and let’s get through them right now,” Mr Carthy said, adding that the Government could not be trusted.
Mr Carthy, Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon, and Sinn Féin TD Reada Cronin all raised an article published on Tuesday on The Ditch website which reported that the US ambassador to Ireland contacted several government offices last month warning of “consequences” for Ireland if the Bill proceeded.
Mr Martin said he had not met with the US ambassador on this, but said that contact from embassies would not be surprising. “That will feature, that will feature in this conversation and this debate and there will be American concerns about multinationals getting embroiled in this.”
He said there are real issues that could not be washed away. He said he had not met anyone personally but had “no doubt” that the US embassy could have been in touch.
Earlier, Taoiseach Simon Harris said it is for the Committee on Foreign Affairs to decide how to deal with the Occupied Territories Bill.
He said the Tánaiste and the Bill’s sponsor, Senator Frances Black, will brief the committee and “it is then for that committee to advise us on how to proceed”.
He was commenting in a Dáil row as Opposition TDs appealed for the legislation to be debated and passed before the general election is called.
Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns raised a report on The Ditch news website claiming the US ambassador last month contacted the Government “about consequences if the Bill was enacted”.
People Before Profit leader Richard Boyd Barrett said “the US Ambassador contacted Micheál Martin 90 minutes before he announced that there was only going to be a review of the Occupied Territories Bill rather than its passage”.
Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Fearghaíl warned him that it was inappropriate to make allegations against anybody who was not in the House to defend themselves.
Addressing the claims, the Taoiseach said he could only relay what he had been told by the Tánaiste. “That is my information. That is all I can relay to this House,” he said.
Mr Martin, Senator Black and department officials are due to make presentations to the Foreign Affairs Committee on the legislation later this afternoon.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald claimed the Government had used “every excuse under the sun to block the Occupied Territories Bill, and now you say you’ll pass it, but only after the election. You can’t be trusted on this matter.”
Labour leader Ivana Bacik said that with the co-operation of the house, “we can see this passed into law this week.
“As the slaughter continues in Gaza and in Lebanon, it’s vital that we in this House, we in this country, can enact meaningful sanctions upon Israel to try to stop a slaughter and to send a powerful signal that Israel cannot continue to kill civilians with impunity.”
Independent TD Thomas Pringle warned the Taoiseach that “if you wait till the next Government, it’ll be five years down the line, and we’ll still be waiting for it”.
Rural Independent Mattie McGrath said the Dáil could sit on Friday if necessary to pass the legislation. He said the Taoiseach decides when to call the election and “you’ve dithered long enough about it”.
Mr Harris insisted that “we would like to see legislation passed ... but we’d also like to see legislation passed that isn’t going to fall at the first hurdle, that isn’t going to fall in the European courts”.
The Bill was first put forward by Independent Senator Frances Black in 2018 but successive governments have stalled it for years.
It has recently been unblocked, with the Government saying that an advisory opinion delivered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) during the summer provided a new context for the Bill to be re-examined.
In the non-binding opinion the ICJ ruled that that Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are in breach of international law and that Israel’s occupation of those territories amounts to long-term annexation which has undermined the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.
Israel has rejected this and is also strongly critical of the proposed Occupied Territories Bill in Ireland.
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