Ireland Sent €20m of Tech To The IDF in 2024
Ireland Sent €20m of Tech To The IDF in 2024
Text: Izzy Copestake
The newly uncovered export data raises uncomfortable questions about whether that solidarity ends where economic and strategic interests begin.
Freedom of Information requests from the Currency and the Wall Street Journal have revealed that Ireland approved the export of technology worth at least €20m to the Israel Defence Forces (and other state bodies) in 2024. This was at the height of Israel’s genocidal onslaught on Palestine.
Despite Ireland’s reputation as one of Palestine’s most outspoken allies in Europe, the revelations suggest a stark contradiction between widespread public solidarity with Palestinians and the Irish government’s approval of exports that may have directly supported Israel’s military campaign and the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza.
The licences in question covered so-called “dual-use” technologies, which are products such as software, computing equipment and electronic systems that can serve civilian purposes while also possessing military applications. Under Irish and EU regulations, every licence requires ministerial approval. In other words, these exports were not accidental oversights within a sprawling bureaucracy; they were authorised by the state.
By the beginning of 2025, Ireland’s Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment had reportedly begun refusing all such licence applications, citing a “clear risk” that the items could contribute to serious violations of international humanitarian law. But why were so many authorized in 2024, The same year that saw the Palestinian death toll by Israel top 70,000?
“I am absolutely disgusted that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil could have allowed trade and production of dual-use technology to have occurred with Israel at the height of its illegal war on Gaza,” said Duncan Smith, a lawmaker with Ireland’s Labour party.
“How low can this government go? It is beyond belief. What is even more concerning is that this practice was stopped in 2025, not in 2024. Did the government wilfully turn a blind eye to what was happening?”
In a statement to the Currency, a government spokesperson stated that all applications are “considered on a case-by-case basis in accordance with criteria set out within the relevant dual-use and military EU and national regulations, and with Ireland’s international obligations and responsibilities”.
