By ALAN SHATTER JUNE 13, 2026 05:48 Updated: JUNE 13, 2026 05:59 Last week, Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade published its obligatory Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) on the Irish government’s Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition on the Importation of Goods) Bill 2026 ( the PIGS Bill ), which was published the previous week.
The bill, in various forms, has consumed an unprecedented amount of parliamentary time and has been the subject of eight years of debate and controversy in Ireland.
Its enactment represents a repetitive demand of all Irish pro-Palestinian and antil-Israel groups and all of Ireland’s opposition parties.
The central focus of the bill’s advocates is to ban the importation into Ireland of all goods and services originating from “Israeli settlements” in the West Bank, Gaza – where no settlements exist – and east Jerusalem.
The bill, as published, applies to such “settlements” but is confined to goods and excludes services. The exclusion has enraged those who have campaigned for its enactment.
A man holds Irish and Palestinian flags as people protest calling for governments around the world to stop arming Israel during a demonstration in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Dublin, Ireland, June 15, 2024 (credit: Clodagh Kilcoyn/Reuters) These people favor applying boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) to the entirety of Israel and all Israelis, and many advocate Israel’s eradication. They perceive the bill as a Trojan horse for a broader boycott and its promotion as a mechanism for demonizing and delegitimizing Israel.
The bill’s publication coincides with all Irish anti-Israel groups and opposition parties campaigning for a boycott of the autumn-scheduled Ireland-Israel UEFA football matches as a follow-up to Ireland’s self-harming, irrelevant boycott of Eurovision.
Escalating boycott campaigns in Irish public life
The former follows failed campaigns to have Israel excluded from all international football and basketball games and is accompanied by a less prominent campaign to have Israel excluded from participating in the European wheelchair rugby championship!
In today’s Ireland, even disabled Israelis are legitimate targets for opprobrium and discriminatory boycott!
The exclusion of Israeli services from the PIGS Bill has been justified by the Irish government on the grounds that they are impossible to regulate and that prohibiting them could jeopardize the export of Irish goods to the US – Ireland’s second largest trading partner, accounting for 32% of goods exported in 2024.
The overall Ireland-US economic relationship is valued in the RIA as exceeding one trillion euros.
The government is also concerned that extending the bill to include services could jeopardize many of the estimated 245,000 jobs provided by US global multinationals based in Ireland, as well as the many jobs indirectly related to US companies.
It could also compromise further US investment in Ireland and the billions of euros in tax payments annually received by Ireland’s exchequer from US companies, which the Irish economy and public services are hugely dependent on.
Additional concern relates to any potential impact on Irish multinationals operating in the US.
This is due to US anti-boycott laws – both at the federal level and in 38 states – which prohibit companies from complying with or cooperating in boycotts involving pre-1967 Israel and the “Occupied Territories” and may affect how such companies can operate or implement related policies.
The concerns have been exacerbated by commentary from 40 members of Congress, who are critical of the Irish government’s plans.
International context and emerging legislative comparisons
When first proposed, the bill, if enacted in its original form, would have been the first Nazi copycat law specifically targeting Jews in Europe since the end of World War II.
Spain has now achieved that distinction by enacting a ban on the importation of goods from Israeli settlements, including Jerusalem, similar to the PIGS Bill.
The Netherlands and, reportedly, Belgium are currently considering such laws. Slovenia has abandoned any such plan upon its new government assuming office.
The RIA accompanying the PIGS Bill, while sounding serious warnings, also starkly illustrates its farcical nature.
“Goods” under the bill are said to include things of every kind, whether animate or inanimate.
Their importation is to be prohibited if they originate from a postal code whose goods do not benefit from preferential tariffs afforded to Israeli goods under the terms of the EU-Israel Association Agreement .
Under existing EU arrangements in place since February 2005, all Israeli goods commercially entering the EU must detail the postal code and name of the area where the products come from.
To enable the arrangements’ implementation, the European Commission periodically publishes lists of non-…
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