Results 1-20 of 9,587 for speaker:Matt Carthy

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Export Controls (23 May 2024)

Matt Carthy: 56. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will report on his efforts to ensure that dual-use items exported to Israel are not used in military applications. [23276/24]

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Export Controls (23 May 2024)

Matt Carthy: As the Minister knows, dual-use items are items that can have either a civilian or, importantly in this case, a military use or capability. Over recent years, the Government and the Department have been signing off on an increasing number of licences for dual-use items to be exported to Israel from Ireland. Can the Minister assure the House that not a single one of those items is being used...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Export Controls (23 May 2024)

Matt Carthy: Those words would count for more if there were a single instance where the Department had refused a licence. There is a big question mark over the rationale and the reason the number of dual-licence products - these are products that can be used by military forces - has actually been increasing in recent years. The value of these products from Ireland to Israel was €4.7 million in...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Export Controls (23 May 2024)

Matt Carthy: With due respect to the Minister of State, he is asking me to do his job for him. He talks about the interactions with the Department of Foreign Affairs. That Department is obliged under its own criteria to consider "Respect for human rights in the country of final destination as well as respect by that country of international humanitarian law". How the hell can we be allowing any licence...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Export Controls (23 May 2024)

Matt Carthy: Not a single licence has ever been refused.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Matt Carthy: I thank the Tánaiste for being here. One general comment that should be made is that the Bill was presented for Committee Stage before the pre-legislative scrutiny report of this committee was delivered to the Department of Defence. I find that insulting, not just to this committee - that is political - but to people from the representative organisations, and from the-----

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Matt Carthy: It was produced before the Tánaiste received the report of this committee. Is that factually correct?

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Matt Carthy: Is that factually correct or not?

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Matt Carthy: Let me move on to the amendments.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Matt Carthy: Fair enough. Regardless of whether the Tánaiste read the pre-legislative scrutiny report before preparing the legislation, my understanding is that he could not have done that. However, the fact is that one of the key component points raised throughout the pre-legislative scrutiny phase of these discussions is not reflected in the Bill that has been brought before us. I am speaking...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Matt Carthy: Deputy Cronin is only requesting that the statement be circulated. That is all.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Matt Carthy: It is as simple as that.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Matt Carthy: By the association.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Matt Carthy: Jesus, solicitors will have good craic with the wording "making himself or herself identifiable" if somebody is in the scenario I mentioned, that is, in a school. If somebody gets up to speak on behalf of the school and is introduced as a member of the Defence Forces, is he or she making himself or herself identifiable? There are principles that everybody accepts and there are parts of this...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Matt Carthy: It is still possible, therefore, for the Government to appeal.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Matt Carthy: Has the Tánaiste asked the Attorney General to look at this section in the context of that judgment?

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Matt Carthy: Yes, or another means of making oneself identifiable.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Matt Carthy: That is good to know.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Matt Carthy: I think the point is it is not in primary legislation.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Matt Carthy: Yes, and on the fundamentals, there is very little disagreement, if any, that I can discern. The difficulty is, and this debate is evidence of it, as was the pre-legislative scrutiny stage, that this does not bring about the clarity the Tánaiste is striving to bring about. To go back to one of the questions I was going to ask, he mentioned that this was based heavily on military...