The Central Bank should conduct an internal review into whether it can turn down a request from Israel to continue to facilitate the sale of its war bonds, an Oireachtas committee has said.
The cross-party Oireachtas Finance Committee has made the recommendation in a report published today, saying the potential review should take place “in advance of any renewal [of the bonds] in September”.
While the Central Bank is independent of the Oireachtas, its facilitation of Israeli war bonds has been the subject of significant public and political debate in recent months due to the violence in Gaza.
Read more on the conflict in the Middle East
In a number of committee hearings in early summer, Central Bank governor Gabriel Makhlouf and other senior officials argued that the Central Bank must accept a request to facilitate the sale of the war bonds unless there is a breach of prospectus rules.
Among these rules are those in relation to transparency, accuracy and humanitarian matters.
The Oireachtas Finance Committee has been meeting privately in recent days to conclude its report on the issue.
While it is a cross-party committee and includes both Opposition and Government TDs and senators, it has made 15 unanimous recommendations, including:
- The Central Bank “shall conduct an immediate internal review in advance of any renewal in September of the Israeli bond prospectus” to determine if “it is in compliance with the prospectus regulation”;
- The Central Bank “engage with other EU central banks to develop a mechanism whereby an individual Central Bank can refuse to process any new prospectus request”;
- Government “engage at EU level with a view to amending the EU prospectus regulations to permit each individual European Central Bank to refuse to act as a competent authority”;
- And that “as part of a review seek supplementary information from the issuer and include an examination with regard to” the recent International Court of Justice case by South Africa and “any other pertinent matters in respect of international law”.
The report is non-binding, meaning it can only include recommendations.
It will now be sent to the Department of Finance for further examination.
The Central Bank of Ireland said it is aware of the publication and “will review”.
