Occupied Territories Bill: Economic and diplomatic repercussions ‘unknowable', report finds
The foreign affairs and trade committee, chaired by Fianna Fáil TD
John Lahart
, will publish its report on the pre-legislative scrutiny of the
Israeli
Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill on Thursday afternoon.
It recommends that the Government legislation be extended to include trade in services – one of the most contentious aspects of a ban, and one which could have significant repercussions for the State. As originally envisaged, the bill would only target the minuscule trade in goods between illegally occupied territories and Ireland – whereas the scope of a trade in services would be broader, and much more complex both in terms of logistics and diplomatically.
[
From a viewing platform in Israel, observers watch Gaza's destruction through binoculars
Opens in new window
]
The committee report outlines that 'potential repercussions from the international community, in terms of both international relations and economically, are unknowable' and recommends that Minister for Foreign Affairs
Simon Harris
'undertakes efforts to establish and publish a range of likely scenario'.
READ MORE
It also recommends that advice from the Attorney General on the inclusion of services be expedited, noting it did not have this advice to hand – nor data on trade in services – when it was formulating its report. It recommends that attempts be made to obtain and publish data on trade in services.
In his foreword to the report, Mr Lahart draws attention to the a recommendation that the Government continue to pursue its ''optimal policy scenario' of action being taken in relation to Gaza at EU level.'
He wrote that even as committee hearings were taking place, the context changed dramatically from one where a potential international conference on a two state solution was being reported to a 'descent into the darkest of humanitarian catastrophes in Gaza, including the continued weaponising of hunger and the threat of famine.'
The report recommends that the identification of potential legal challenges to the legislation should 'no be used as grounds for diluting the legislation', and that the Government 'continues to advocate at EU level for further collective action against illegal Israeli settlements'.
Continued lobbying of like-minded EU member states to encourage them towards 'equivalent national-level legislation'.
It also recommends that preparatory work necessary to support the timely and effective implementation of the bill be conducted in parallel with its passage through the Oireachtas. A proactive campaign should be undertaken, it says, with diplomacy at EU, UN and US levels to inform the public and international observers of the relevant facts of the legislation 'and to address any misinformation or misconceptions'.
The report outlines that the committee received
hundreds of submissions
during its pre-legislative scrutiny process, but that aside from employers' body IBEC, 'virtually no submissions were received from the business or trade/international business or trade sectors'. It recommends that the Government 'addresses this as it progresses the bill'.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
20 minutes ago
- Irish Times
Is it worth borrowing to improve the energy efficiency of your home?
It's unlikely the €250 winter electricity bill credit will be repeated in this year's budget, the Taoiseach has warned. It was always a temporary cost-of-living measure to shield us from higher energy costs, but that reasoning will be cold comfort when your winter energy bills land. If you own your own home, there are ways to permanently reduce your energy bills. Getting a Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland (SEAI) grant, coupled with borrowing money from the Government-backed Home Energy Upgrade loan scheme, can help fund improvements to make your house permanently warmer and cheaper to run. So where are the savings, and how does the loan scheme work? Attic attack If you have an attic, one of the cheapest and most effective things you can do to achieve a warmer home and reduce energy bills is to insulate it. Heat rises, and up to 30 per cent of your home's heat is lost through your roof. READ MORE The median cost of roof insulation for a semi-detached or end of terrace home is €1,900, according to the SEAI, but a grant from them will cover €1,300 of that. For your own €600 investment, the payback from roof insulation is instantaneous. This is one of the cheapest but highest-impact things you can do to reduce your energy bills. The cheapest way to fund the cost will be from savings, if you have them. The Government-backed Home Energy Upgrade loan scheme, offered by Bank of Ireland, AIB , PTSB, Avant Money in partnership with An Post, and some credit unions, offers borrowings of between €5,000 and €75,000 over terms of one to 10 years. As the attic insulation costs less than €5,000, this loan is no good to you here. Solar panels Solar panels are all the rage, with an explosion in the number of people opting for this measure to reduce their energy bills. There were 119,300 homes, or 6 per cent of all occupied dwellings, in the country with solar panels, according to Census 2022 data. Meath had the highest proportion at over one in 10 homes, which is almost twice the national rate, according to the data. For a mid-terrace home, expect to pay €8,100 for a 4kWp set-up, according to SEAI estimates. You'll get an SEAI grant of between €1,400 and €1,800 towards that. Can solar panels save on energy costs? The answer is 'Yes'. How much you can save and how fast will depend on the number of panels, their aspect, whether you use more daytime or night-time electricity, what tariff you are on, and whether you are also selling electricity back to the grid. Householders generating energy through solar panels reported perceived savings averaging €91 a month on energy bills, according to an Electric Ireland sustainability index published in June. Solar thermal panels can save up to 60 per cent on water heating bills; and solar photovoltaic (PV) modules can save householders €200-€300 per year on electricity bills, according to an AIB Homes Retrofit Report, published in December. Solar isn't as effective in winter, so it averages a five- or six-year pay back, installers say. After the maximum grant of €1,800, expect to pay about €6,300 for your panels. One of the cheapest ways to borrow the money is through the Home Energy Upgrade loan scheme. Rates vary by bank. Borrow €6,300 over five years from Bank of Ireland and the rate is 2.95 per cent with repayments working out at €113 a month. The interest rate for this type of loan is a higher 3.15 per cent with AIB and 4.55 per cent with PTSB, so the monthly repayments with those banks will be €115 and €118 respectively. Wall insulation About 60 per cent of household energy spending goes on heating, says the SEAI. You can lose 20 to 30 per cent of heat through your walls however. Walls that leak heat mean you have to keep the heat on for longer for the place to get warm, and once it goes off, the place cools fast - so you lose all the heat you've paid for. This costs you in the form of higher heating bills. For a semi–detached or end of terrace house, the median cost for external wall insulation is €22,000, says the SEAI. You can get an SEAI grant towards that of €6,000. Borrow the €16,000 balance through Bank of Ireland's Home Energy Upgrade loan scheme over 10 years and the repayments will be €154 a month. On your €16,000 loan, you'll pay back €18,495 in total. You'll have had the benefit of a warmer home and lower bills for those 10 years. Go all the way Attic, walls, solar panels, windows, heat pump - if you plan to go the whole hog, retrofitting your home up to an A rating, expect to spend about €40,000 of your own money after grants. That's according to SEAI estimates presented to the Public Accounts Committee in 2023. These retrofit measures will seriously reduce your energy costs over time. For example, your energy usage can be reduced by up to 20 per cent by using a heat pump, according to the home retrofit report from AIB published in December. Borrow €40,000 over 10 years through the Government low-cost loan scheme and monthly repayments will range from €385 with Bank of Ireland to €402 with PTSB. In addition to the €40,000 you borrowed, you'll be paying back €6,240 and €8,256 respectively to these banks for the cost of the loan. Again, you'll have enjoyed far lower bills and a warmer home for the 10 years you are paying off your loan. You will have increased the value of your home too. Home values increase by 1 per cent for every level you go up on the Ber scale. For example, a home that goes from a Ber of G to a B2 will increase its value by 10 per cent, according to the SEAI. Three-quarters of prospective homebuyers say they are more inclined to consider a property's Ber in light of sustainability concerns and higher energy costs, according to a survey in February 2023. You'll pay far higher interest on a car loan for example, and that car is not going to appreciate like a retrofitted house. Change on the horizon? From 2019 and to the middle of this year, 213,000 homes benefited from SEAI schemes and grants to improve their energy efficiency, according to the Department of the Environment. More will need to be done, and fast, to reach Ireland's 2030 carbon reduction targets. Government budget watchers hope that, in lieu of short-term energy credits, there will be better grants to help cash-strapped households retrofit and take charge of their own energy bills. While there are long-term savings from retrofitting, the upfront cost is still considerable. You can contact us at OnTheMoney@ with personal finance questions you would like to see us address. If you missed last week's newsletter, by Dominic Coyle on holiday car hire pit falls to avoid, you can read it here .
Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
Robert Dunne, son of former supermarket tycoon Ben Dunne, dies in New York
The death has taken place of Robert Dunne, son of the former head of Dunnes Stores, the late Ben Dunne. Mr Dunne, who was 50, died peacefully in New York on August 1st. He is to be buried on Monday in Castleknock Churchyard, Dublin, following a Requiem Mass at St Mochta's Church, Porterstown, Clonsilla. The Brehon Law Society of New York, where Mr Dunne worked as a lawyer, said it was with 'deep respect and remembrance' that it heard of the death of its President Emeritus. 'Rob's unwavering dedication to justice, his leadership within the Brehon Law Society, and his enduring commitment to the Irish-American legal community leave a lasting impression,' it said, announcing that a month's mind Mass is to be held in New York on September 4th. READ MORE Mr Dunne grew up in Castleknock, Co Dublin, attended Trinity College Dublin and the London School of Economics, worked in Dunnes Stores in the Ilac Centre, Dublin, and later moved to the US to work as a lawyer. He is survived by his mother, Mary, siblings Mark, Caroline and Nicholas, and wider family. Condolences posted on recalled his time in Castleknock, at Trinity, in the Ilac Centre, and in the US. 'I lived in NYC for twenty years and attended many interesting legal events invited by Rob. His laughter was infectious and wit, second to none. May he rest in peace,' said Antoin, formerly of Manhattan. In a moving interview with The Sunday Independent last year Mr Dunne spoke about being the son of one of the State's top business figures and a man whose life was filled with extraordinary controversy. Among the events he recalled was his father being kidnapped by the Provisional IRA in 1981, being arrested in Florida in 1992 when having a panic attack after taking cocaine, and the way his mother stuck with her husband during the ensuing controversy and his father's continuing struggles with cocaine. 'I think my dad developed what we would now call PTSD and he needed counselling,' Mr Dunne said in respect of the effect of the kidnapping. The fallout from the events in Florida included an audit being commissioned of Dunnes Stores accounts, which led in time to revelations about payments to Michael Lowry and the late Charles Haughey, and the associated inquiries by the McCracken and Moriarty tribunals. Mr Dunne told the newspaper that it was the events in Florida and the fallout from them that led to his decision to study law. He eventually set up his own firm in New York. Asked what he would say to his father, who died in 2023, Mr Dunne said he would tell him he couldn't have had a better father. 'You made lots of mistakes, but you owned all of them. Please know that I am nothing but proud of you.'
Irish Times
2 hours ago
- Irish Times
Independent ministers seek changes to inheritance tax system for adults with no children
Independent Ministers have pushed for changes to the inheritance tax system for the beneficiaries of estates left by people with no children. A campaign group known as Edit (End Discrimination in Inheritance Tax) has been contacting politicians as part of efforts to bring about reforms to the capital acquisitions tax (CAT) regime, which it says is 'grossly unfair'. Independent Ministers of State Michael Healy-Rae and Marian Harkin have raised the issue with Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe . Their separate interventions are included in records released under the Freedom of Information Act. CAT applies at a rate of 33 per cent on gifts or inheritances above certain tax-free thresholds that depend on the beneficiary's relationship to the person that gives them the gift or inheritance. READ MORE For spouses and civil partners, inheritances are free of tax. Children inheriting from a parent can receive up to €400,000 tax-free. For other relatives a tax-free threshold of €40,000 applies, while non-relatives can receive up to €20,000 tax free. Edit argues the thresholds that apply to the beneficiaries of the estates of childless adults are 'discriminatory'. One option Edit has proposed would be allowing people to inherit a home tax-free and to abolish the thresholds in favour of an across-the-board 10 per cent levy on all other assets. Mr Healy-Rae and Ms Harkin highlighted Edit's campaign in contacts with Mr Donohoe last March. Kerry TD Mr Healy-Rae included correspondence from Edit by saying it is a 'genuine campaign for people who do not have children', who are being 'unfairly' treated by the tax system. He said the information he enclosed 'may be helpful in future budgets'. This week Mr Healy-Rae said 'this is something I am very much pursuing and would like to see changed', though he did not offer specifics on what he would like to see happen. Mr Healy-Rae also said: 'I am acutely aware of the pressures on the upcoming budget', including 'the threat of tariffs to our economy' and issues such as the proposal to cut the VAT rate for the hospitality sector. 'I will continue to push for change on this and while it may not be possible for this upcoming budget it's something I'm focused on for the lifetime of this Government,' he said. In her email to Mr Donohoe, Sligo-Leitrim TD Ms Harkin told the Minister she received representations from a number of constituents on inheritance tax for couples who do not have children. She asked that the issue be reviewed 'with a view to increasing the threshold'. A spokesman for Ms Harkin said she has 'no further comment on the issue'. The Department of Finance said: 'It is a long-standing practice of the Minister for Finance not to comment in advance of the budget on any tax matters which might be the subject of budget decisions.' It noted that inheritance tax was covered in this year's Tax Strategy Papers, in which department officials set out options that inform the budget process. Government backbenchers Aindrias Moynihan and Shay Brennan of Fianna Fáil and Barry Ward of Fine Gael asked Mr Donohoe about CAT in parliamentary questions last month. As part of his answer, Mr Donohoe said: 'There would be a significant cost in making any further substantial changes to CAT' and 'the options available for setting CAT thresholds must be balanced against competing demands'.
