Emma Hickey reports from Paris

THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES Bill could be ready by the summer, Tánaiste Simon Harris said.

The long-awaited draft bill has been in the works since 2018. It proposes to limit trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. 

The Bill, which was first introduced by Independent Senator Frances Black in 2018, proposed making it an offence “for a person to import or sell goods or services originating in an occupied territory or to extract resources from an occupied territory in certain circumstances”.

Uncertainty remains over whether services will be included in the Bill.

Harris was speaking to reporters in Paris, where he is visiting on a ministerial trip marking St Patrick’s Day. He today visited the OECD in the city and delivered remarks at an event celebrating the upcoming holiday.

Asked for an update on the legislation and whether it could be this side of summer, Harris said, “It could well be”.

He said Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Helen McEntee has received detailed advice from the Attorney General on the proposed bill.

“She’s gone back with further questions and queries, working her way through that. We have put it on the government’s legislative list,” he said.

Harris added that the Oireachtas Committee has “done good work” in scrutinising the draft bill.

“I will bring forward a specific timeline to be determined,” he said.

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He said Government’s commitment towards the bill remains.

The Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill is listed under “priority publication” in the Government’s spring legislative programme.

Pre-legislative scrutiny was completed last July.