Matt Carthy
Question:56. Deputy Matt Carthy asked 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]
View answerThursday, 23 May 2024
Questions (56)
Oral answers (8 contributions)
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 by Israeli military forces or their proxies in their ongoing genocide against the people of Palestine?
Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as an gceist.
Our Department is the national competent authority with responsibility for export controls, including those relating to defence-related exports and the export of dual-use goods. Controls on the export of dual-use items are administered by my Department in accordance with Regulation No. 2021/821 of the European Parliament and of the Council, which set up an EU regime for the control of exports, brokering, technical assistance, transit and transfer of dual-use items. As the Deputy said, dual-use items are products and components, including software and technology, that can be used for both civil and military applications. The bulk of dual-use exports from Ireland to Israel are mainstream business ICT products, predominantly software, that are categorised as dual-use items specifically as a consequence of the fact that they incorporate strong encryption for ICT security purposes.
Each export licence application, including those indicating an end destination in Israel, is carefully considered by my officials in accordance with criteria set out within the relevant dual-use and military EU and national regulations and with Ireland's international obligations and responsibilities as members of non-proliferation regimes and export control arrangements.
Any exporter intending to export a dual-use item outside the EU must engage with our Department, which will consider the exporter's internal compliance procedures to ensure they meet the requirements set out in the dual use regulation. On receipt of an application for an export licence, my officials carry out a considered assessment which includes a series of checks to ensure, as far as possible, that the item to be exported will be used by the stated end user for the stated end use and not for illicit purposes.
As part of the assessment, our officials seek the views of the Department of Foreign Affairs in respect of all applications for export licences, including those destined for Israeli end users. Both our Department and the Department of Foreign Affairs review all dual-use export licence applications against the eight assessment criteria set out in Council common position. Investigations are carried out into the end user and the type of business in which they are engaged. As part of the application, the exporter must provide an end user certificate, which is a declaration from the end user that the goods will be used for the intended purpose. My officials are furnished with up-to-date information that they take into account in the final risk assessment. The Department will deny a licence application if there are concerns that the goods being exported will be used for a military end use or if the exporter has not provided sufficient information on the intended end use.
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 2019; it was €70.37 million last year. Every licence application has been approved by the Department. To put this in context, medical scissors going into Gaza are denied by Israel precisely because they are dual-use products. How sick is that? Yet we are sending increasing amounts of software and other products that do have the capacity to be used by the Israeli military and we are approving every single licence. I do not believe there has been a substantial increase in demand for software payroll technology from Israel over the past seven or eight months. What we do know is that there has been an increased demand from within its military forces and their proxy organisations. I ask the Minister of State not to just use the standard processes in respect of dual-use licences as regards this issue because this is Israel. We should be applying a much more stringent level of rules because the capacity of that state to unleash unholy terror on the people of Palestine is unfolding before our eyes and we have to be crystal clear that nothing we are doing is supporting those attacks.
I agree with the Deputy. We are crystal clear that nothing we do will support the war that is under way. That is why we have such rigorous criteria. If the Deputy believes that those criteria have let things slip through, he should let me know and I will absolutely follow up on the matter. Applications for dual-use licences in respect of exports to Israel are assessed rigorously on a case-by-case basis. In addition, the officials in our Department seek real-time geopolitical observations from the Department of Foreign Affairs in respect of all applications. They use that real-time information in the final decision to grant or deny a licence. Our ICT exports have increased right across the world, particularly in the post-Covid environment. The goods going to Israel include medicines and industrial pumps. The majority of goods are in respect of standard business ICT software. If the Deputy has an example or a concern about a particular product, I encourage him to bring it to me and I will absolutely ensure we assess it and examine that concern.
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 for exports going to Israel to be approved, considering that it is the official position of this House and this Government that Israel is involved in de facto annexation in the West Bank, when the Government has finally agreed to intervene in the International Court of Justice case in respect of a charge of genocide against Israel, when we have asked the EU to consider the human rights clauses within the EU-Israel trade association agreement and when a former Taoiseach described Israel's onslaught on Gaza as approaching revenge? Does the Minister of State not agree, considering the criteria in respect of human rights and the adherence to international humanitarian law, that we should not be sending a single product that could have a military use to the State of Israel while it continues to be in gross violation of international law?
I assure the Deputy I am not asking him to do my job, nor will I do so. We have a rigorous process. The Deputy is insinuating that said process is allowing things to slip through. If he has backup to that insinuation, he should provide it to us and I will be able to give him relevant and accurate information. We have a rigorous process that involves our Department and the Department of Foreign Affairs in respect of not only Israel but also every market that concerns dual-use exports. A great deal of work goes into ensuring that the process is rigorous and independent.
Not a single licence has ever been refused.
I am confident in standing over that process. As Ministers in the Department, Deputies Burke and Higgins and I regularly challenge our officials to make sure it is rigorous, particularly in respect of Israel.