Senator Alice Mary Higgins (Ind ) has called on the bank’s top officials to appear before a high-powered finance committee to explain their actions, after she claims this transfer has not been adequately completed.
She has also communicated with members of Luxembourg’s parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, about compliance with the Genocide Convention and the International Court of Justice’s advice on the obligation of states to prevent investment relations that assist illegal actions by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
The senator, who represents the National University Ireland panel, including University of Galway graduates, says the CBI has serious questions to answer concerning the series of events last week which prompted the State of Israel’s bond programme to declare that its ability to attract European investments will now be approved by Luxembourg banks, instead of the Dublin-based authority.
Senator Higgins, a member of the Oireachtas’ Joint Committee on Finance and Public Expenditure, says that media reporting last week indicated Israel’s bonds would no longer be issued from Ireland, but that it has since emerged Ireland’s Central Bank will remain the host authority for approval of the Israeli bonds across the EU.
Higgins had previously supported Finance Committee recommendations to review - and possibly suspend - the CBI’s bond issuing because of allegations of war crimes against the Israeli government.
“On September 1st, it was reported that the Central Bank would no longer hold the approval of the most recent 2025 [bond] prospectus, and that ‘the competent authority of Luxembourg approved a new prospectus for the state of Israel’. It has since been clarified that the central bank will remain the host nation for approval of the Israeli bond issuance programme.
“This raises several questions on how this transfer took place, the process around approval, and whether any recommended actions from [our] Committee report were undertaken before any of these decisions were made, including conducting a review of the programme with respect of international law, and the requesting of supplementary information in the prospectus.
“It is clear the Central Bank of Ireland still has serious questions to answer in relation how the reported transfer of approval took place, where the approval took place, what process was undertaken around the approval, and whether that process reflected any of the recommendations made by the Committee,” she said.
“I have written to the Committee to request the urgent appearance of the Central Bank when the Committee reconvenes to clarify its role in the process of approval.”
