Issue - meetings

Councillor J Lyons requested permission from the City Council to amend his motion which stood at No 1 on the Agenda Paper. The City Council agreed and the amended motion, having been seconded by Councillor A Keegan, was then proposed by Councillor J Lyons as follows:

“Since its violent establishment in 1948 through the ethnic cleansing  of  more than  half of the indigenous people of Palestine, the state of Israel has denied  Palestinians their fundamental rights and has refused to comply with  international law; noting also that Israel continues to illegally occupy and colonise Palestinian land, discriminate against Palestinian citizens  of  Israel,  imposes  an  inhumane  blockade  and  siege  of  Gaza  and  denies Palestinian  refugees the right to return  to  their  homes,  this City  Council   fully  supports and endorses the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement for freedom, equality and justice  and  commits  itself to discontinue all business contracts it has with  Hewlett-Packard, both  HP  Inc. (PCs  and  printers), and Hewlett Packard Enterprise for business and government  services, as well as the HP spin-off DXC Technology as HP and DXC provide and operate much of the technology infrastructure  that  Israel  uses  to  maintain  its  system of  apartheid  and settler colonialism over the Palestinian people”

Following discussion, the Chief Executive, Mr Owen Keegan, clarified the position of the executive of the city council in relation to the proposed motion. He said that it would not be appropriate for him to comment on the terms of the motion generally but he wished to remind Members that legal responsibility for all procurement by the City Council rests with him as Chief Executive, as against the Elected Members. In exercising this responsibility he is obliged to comply with statutory national and EU procurement frameworks, which already provide grounds for exclusion.  Dublin City Council is required to meet procurement obligations including the equal treatment of all parties and not deliberately restricting the market. In view of this, he said that if this motion were to be adopted by the Council, he would not be implementing a procurement boycott of any entity, based on the content of this motion, as to do so would be in breach of both national and EU procurement frameworks. The amended motion as set out above was then put to a vote and carried.