Government must explain its delay in asking Attorney General for legal advice on including ‘services’ in Occupied Territories Bill

The Green Party has demanded the Government explain why the Attorney General has only recently been asked for his advice on the legal issues around including or excluding ‘services’ for the Government’s proposed draft bill.

Speaking in light of the confirmation by the Tánaiste recently that he would be seeking fresh legal advice from the AG on the inclusion of services in the bill, Green Party Leader Roderic O’Gorman said that the Government has three key questions to answer. 

“Who provided the Taoiseach with the legal advice that he has mentioned many times in the Dáil that services have had to be omitted from the Government's draft OTB for ‘legal reasons'?

“If this legal advice was not provided by the Attorney General, will the Taoiseach publish this advice, as it is not subject to the convention that formal AG advice is not made public.

“And, considering how important the inclusion or exclusion of services has been to the entire debate on the Occupied Territories Bill in the 6 months since the general election, can the Government explain why it is only in late May that they had the idea of asking the AG for his advice on including services?

I think it is bizarre that the Government’s chief legal advisor has not been consulted on this most central of issues before now,” concluded O’Gorman. 

Senator Malcolm Noonan, who’s predecessor in Seanad Éireann Grace O’Sullivan co-sponsored Senator Black’s original bill, added: 

“There is a perfectly good piece of legislation - Senator Frances Black’s Occupied Territories Bill - sitting at Committee Stage in the Dáil right now. It covers both goods and services originating from the Palestinian Occupied Territories. With some amendment, it could be passed by the time the Dáil breaks for summer and be put into law. But the Government refuses to do that. Instead, it asks the Opposition to back its proposal to go all the way back to the drawing board with a Bill that will be far less effective because it excludes services. How can the Opposition believe anything other than this is a delaying tactic?” asked Sen. Malcolm Noonan.