![\"Residents](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/5172238_3_articleinline_ISRAEL_20Gaza_20Lebanon_20153272A.jpg\" "\\"Residents")
Residents and rescuers gather at the scene of a missile strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, on Friday, September 20, 2024. Picture: Bilal Hussein\/AP<\/p>\nIreland authorised the export of more than \u20ac1.65bn of items that can be used for military purposes in 2025, with goods going to warring nations such as Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and the US.<\/p>\n
\u2018Dual-use items\u2019 encompass goods, software, and technology that can be used for both civilian and military means.<\/p>\n
European regulation seeks to ban the export of dual-use goods used in connection with \u201cweapons of mass destruction or violations of human rights\u201d.<\/p>\n
Cormac Little, senior counsel at William Fry and head of the law firm\u2019s competition and regulation department, said exporting companies act under the umbrella of EU legislation: \u201cThere is a telephone directory of annexes to that [EU] regulation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n The first question is always: \u2018Is this a dual-use good or not?\u2019\n <\/p>\n
\u201cYou basically look at the annexes, which are split into 10 different categories, and then within those categories, there\u2019s a myriad of sub-categories and sub-sub-categories.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Little added that \u201cit\u2019s not getting any easier\u201d to identify what dual-use items can end up being used in active combat.<\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia (\u20ac350m) and Ukraine (\u20ac295m) were the largest recipients of Irish dual-use goods in 2025. Total exports to Israel decreased from more than \u20ac64m in 2024 to just above \u20ac3m in 2025.<\/p>\n
Two dual-use exports to Israel were denied, alongside two to Afghanistan. The combined value of the proposed exports was \u20ac2.96m.<\/p>\n
The Department of Enterprise did not comment on the reasons behind the refusals or why the value of Israeli exports nosedived between 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n
A department spokesperson said: \u201cIf there are any concerns that the goods being exported will not be used for the end use or by the specified end user as detailed in the application, or if the exporter does not provide enough information on the intended end-use to make an informed decision, the application for a licence is denied.\u201d<\/p>\n
The overwhelming majority (\u20ac2.95m) of exports to Israel in 2025 were \u2018category five\u2019 dual-use goods, classified under the umbrella of telecommunications and information security.<\/p>\n
Around \u20ac118,000 of \u2018category zero\u2019 goods \u2014 nuclear materials, facilities, and equipment \u2014 were also exported.<\/p>\n
Residents and rescuers gather at the scene of a missile strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, on Friday, September 20, 2024. Picture: Bilal Hussein\/AP<\/p>\n
Independent senator Alice-Mary Higgins said while telecommunications and information security may sound benign, they could be part of AI\u2019s increasing role in human conflict.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cInformation technologies can sound very neutral. But what we know is that some of the most appalling and experimental and human rights-incompatible forms of military action that we\u2019ve seen used upon the people of Gaza and other Palestinians have been through this kind of information technology.\u201d<\/p>\n
Independent senator Tom Clonan, who served as a UN peacekeeper, said Ireland may be at the centre of \u201ccivil-military fusion\u201d because of the domestic tech sector.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThis relates to the enormous changes in the technology around weapon systems, particularly in the incorporation of AI into the targeting and target acquisition systems being used by weapon systems all around the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“As a consequence, many dual-use items that we\u2019re manufacturing and exporting, including tech services and goods, are capable of being used by belligerent parties in conflicts around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland authorised the export of more than \u20ac1.65bn of items that can be used for military purposes in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4712,61,60,43,2040],"class_list":["post-571312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-israel-palestine","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}