THE GOVERNMENT HAS been urged by TDs and Senators to engage with the EU to amend the law so the Irish Central Bank can refuse to facilitate the sale of Israeli State bonds. 

The Oireachtas Finance Committee, whose membership includes government TDs and senators, published a review today on Israeli bonds, which included recommendations for both the Irish government and the Central Bank. 

Commenting on the publication of the review, committee chair Sinn Féin TD Mairéad Farrell said: “The Committee is united in the position that the Central Bank of Ireland should desist insofar as is possible from the facilitation of Israeli bonds.”

In recent months, the government and the Central Bank have been under mounting pressure to stop facilitating the sale of Israeli State bonds in the EU.

Under EU law, government bonds from countries outside of the EU must have their prospectus ( a legal document setting out the details of the bond) approved by the Central Bank of a country that is in the EU.

In Israel’s case, Ireland’s Central Bank is the authority that approves the document that allows for their sale. 

Pro-Palestine activists in Ireland, alongside most opposition parties in the Dáil, have been pushing for the Irish Central Bank to stop facilitating the sale of Israeli State bonds because of the fact they are used to fund Israel’s military operations in Gaza. 

• Explainer: Why are pro-Palestine groups calling for Ireland to prevent the sale of Israeli ‘war bonds’?

The Oireachtas Finance Committee sought to find out if there is a legal avenue open to the Central Bank to refuse the approval of a prospectus. 

Committee members Colm Burke, Mairéad Farrell, Conor Murphy and Pat Casey Oireachtas Oireachtas

The committee made 15 recommendations following its investigation.

It recommended that ahead of the Israeli bond prospectus’s renewal next month that the Irish Central Bank conduct an internal review to check that the application complies with existing requirements in relation to the level of disclosure, accuracy and transparency. 

Other recommendations were:

• That the government engage at EU level to amend the EU Prospectus regulations to permit individual Central Banks to refuse to act as a Competent Authority.
• That the Irish Central Bank engage with other central banks to develop a mechanism that would allow them to refuse to process any new prospectus certification requests. 
• That the government considers what it can do on a national level to ensure that the approval of any prospectuses complies with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) opinion in July 2024. 

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Chair Mairéad Farrell said that as part of its review, the Central Bank should seek further information from the Israeli authorities.

“This should take into account the nature of the case taken by South Africa against Israel under the Genocide Convention and the interim findings of the ICJ in that regard, the ICJ Advisory Opinion of July 2024 in respect of the illegal situation created by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and any other pertinent matters in respect of international law,” she said.

Farrell added that the committee believes an amendment to the Prospectus Regulation to allow individual European Central Banks to refuse to act as Competent Authority is required in order to allow individual Member States to make decisions which align with their stated position and obligations under international law.

“The Committee further believes that the Central Bank is vested with powers that it has not yet exercised and makes a number of recommendations identifying areas which may provide the Central Bank with the opportunity to desist from facilitation of the prospectus. The Joint Committee encourages the Central Bank to exercise the powers available to it in this regard,” she said.