Industrial Development (Amendment) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2026: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-30
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George Lawlor (LAB), Wexford

The deletion proposed in section 8 of the Bill is bizarre when one considers the Taoiseach's speech to the UN just a few days ago, where he stood up in front of the world and said the world will not forget the inaction on Gaza. A few days later, his Government is proposing to delete the following subsection in the 1987 Act:
The Agency shall not engage in or promote any activity of a primarily military relevance without the prior approval of the Government.
The proposal, in effect, is to take out the guardrails or safeguards that prevent our agencies for the promotion of enterprise and industry from dealing with companies that provide arms that will slaughter even more people in Gaza and elsewhere in Palestine.
In his remarks when rejecting amendments Nos. 1 to 5, inclusive, the Minister of State, in effect, threw himself under the bus in saying the provisions under discussion were in no way related to military matters. This particular subsection absolutely is related to military matters. It is as clear as day that it is related to military matters. We have been talking about the possibility of the Government not knowing about such a connection to military matters. In fact, the Government will not want to know about what is going on behind the scenes in the context of IDA Ireland or Enterprise Ireland potentially interacting and dealing with companies that are sending weapons to slaughter innocent men, women and children in Gaza.
In the current geopolitical climate, section 8 proposes a bizarre, callous and extraordinarily concerning deletion. It is an absolutely regressive step. It is removing a check on how taxpayers' money is spent and how that relates to our neutrality. The prohibition on State agencies engaging in or promoting activities of primarily military relevance without Government approval was enacted in 1987 as a statutory embodiment of our neutrality. It means the machinery of industrial policy, including grant aid, promotional activity and equity investment, which is hugely important to this country and to the agencies, cannot be turned towards military ends without an explicit political decision at Government level. Why is the Government now determined to unwind that principle? It is obvious that the reason is the €800 billion to which Deputy Gibney referred. It wants to get a piece of that filthy, poisonous pie that is going to kill so many people across the globe.
A separate Government approval is needed under the Control of Exports Act 2023. We cannot imagine the domestic market for military goods is terribly large, so most of what is produced off the back of the agencies' investment will absolutely be bound for the export market. Therefore, they will still need approval at that stage. However, we have learned that we cannot trust the Government on that count either. This is the Department that approved €20 million worth of dual-use exports to the IDF and the Israeli defence ministry at the height of the genocide in Gaza. It is clear that the export approval process is not much of a safeguard.
With that in mind, we certainly cannot support section 8 of the Bill. As I said, it is bizarre in the context of all the condemnation of the actions of the war criminal Netanyahu. Of course, we already saw similar when the Government delegates sat and listened to his diatribe at the United Nations in New York last week, when the representatives of every other decent Government across the globe, who did not salute the manner in which he went about his business, left the room and turned their back on Netanyahu, the war criminal who should be arrested if he ever arrives in this country.
This is a callous deletion. It gets rid of a safeguard we have long held as a country that is proud of its neutrality. The Minister of State simply must look again at this.
The Government's previous amendments have certainly said that anything connected to military activity will not be countenanced. However, the Bill's provision is totally open to that and I urge the Minister of State to reject any removal or deletion within section 8 of the Act.

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Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:59+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-30