The Government is set to ignore calls to include trade in services in its legislation restricting trade with territories illegally occupied by Israel.
It is a move that will prompt pressure from the Opposition as the Occupied Territories Bill progresses through the Oireachtas.
The scope of the Bill – and whether it will be focused solely on the trade of goods or expanded to services – has been a key question facing the Coalition.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee said on Thursday that she would bring the legislation to Cabinet in the coming weeks – with a Coalition source saying this move was imminent.
Action on the long-awaited legislation follows international condemnation of the treatment of activists on an aid flotilla to Gaza who were detained in international waters by Israeli forces.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, the right-wing Israeli security minister, later taunted Irish activists and others in a widely circulated video. His actions were condemned by Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
The 14 Irish citizens present arrived in Istanbul after their deportation on Thursday.
Speaking in Paris following a meeting with French president Emmanuel Macron, Taoiseach Micheál Martin all but dismissed the inclusion of services in the Bill, saying it would be going forward “in respect of goods”.
“We will be progressing the Bill – as I said yesterday – in respect of goods, and I think we can make progress on that before summer,” he told reporters.
“I don’t think the services side of it is implementable or viable, and the advice we have on that is fairly solid. Also legally it’s not within our capacity to do it, but even apart from that it’s just impossible to implement.”
Progress on the Bill had stalled for almost a year as McEntee engaged in dialogue with the Attorney General. Draft legislation was scrutinised by the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee, which recommended goods and services be included.
Now she will bring a new version of the legislation to Cabinet, after which it will be presented to the Dáil and begin its passage through the Oireachtas. It is unclear if it will be brought to the Dáil before it rises for its summer break in mid-July, although one Government source indicated that was the aim.
Frances Black, the Independent senator who first introduced legislation seeking to ban trade with Israeli settlements in 2018, welcomed the news.
But she said services should be included and she called on the Government to pass the legislation in full before the Dáil rises for summer.
Her call was mirrored in the Dáil on Thursday, with Opposition parties urging the Government to clear the political agenda to enact the legislation quickly.
The inclusion of services has become the focus of commentary around the Bill, with trade volumes in goods between settlements and Ireland minuscule.
The Government is known to be concerned about the legal implications of it, as well as the consequences for US-Ireland political and economic relations.
McEntee is expected to raise again Ireland’s call for European Union action on trade with illegal Israeli settlements at a meeting of trade ministers in Brussels on Friday.
A Government source here said Ireland would proceed with its domestic legislation even if more concrete action were taken at European level.