It costs less than a modest semi-detached house in the suburbs, yet Ireland’s parliament devoted an entire morning on Wednesday to shutting the door on a mere €214,000 worth of fruit, herbs and other produce that entered the country from Israeli West Bank settlements last year.

Senior Foreign-Affairs official Gerard Keown told the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee that recorded services imports from the settlements were literally “zero” in 2023 because online rentals and software are “intangible” and almost impossible to track.

Undeterred by the tiny ledger entry, Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Fearghaíl insisted the proposed Israeli Settlements (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 carried huge political weight: “If the value was only €10, the symbolic value of the legislation is still enormous.”

The committee wrapped up its hearing by launching a fast-track public-consultation process and signalling cross-party support for widening the ban to services once the attorney-general rules on whether EU law allows it.

Keown acknowledged that US officials under the previous Biden administration quietly queried the bill, while several EU governments also asked questions – pressure he characterised as “diplomatic curiosity” rather than outright opposition.

Wednesday’s theatrics follow the Cabinet’s May 27 decision to push the bill forward as a “symbolic move” after Ireland recognized a Palestinian state last year. Foreign Minister Simon Harris told reporters at the time that he hoped other countries would copy Dublin’s example.

Jerusalem, meanwhile, has already voted with its feet: in December Israel announced it was closing its Dublin embassy, accusing Ireland of “extreme anti-Israel policies” that included backing the very same settlement-goods ban.

Should the measure pass, Ireland would become the first EU member to impose a unilateral boycott of settlement goods – a move with almost no economic bite but plenty of diplomatic sting.