John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

It is important that we debate this issue and I am glad that the Government has put forward this motion. My colleague, Deputy Boyle, has previously suggested that we use our pension funds in ethical ways and this may have been alluded to earlier, but certainly the suggestion that has come from our AWEPA group is worthy of consideration. What AWEPA has suggested, and what the Green Party has previously suggested, is that we look at the pension funds in a creative and constructive way and that we should not use our pensions money to invest in harmful products such as tobacco, alcohol and armaments. AWEPA is suggesting that we divest Irish pension funds from Sudan. It is a suggestion which the Government Deputies ought to consider. AWEPA states clearly that while the diplomatic deadlock persists, this is a means of applying extra pressure on Khartoum now that President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan has rejected the plan to allow the African Union UN force to be deployed in Darfur by 1 January next. If we were to take the action AWEPA is suggesting, it would be a small step, which perhaps some would regard as insignificant but which would set the ball rolling for a much wider campaign at European Union level. We can light that torch. If that is done and all of the European Union countries were to act together on this, the effect would be significant. That is why it is important that the Minister, Deputy Dermot Ahern, takes that initiative to his colleagues in the European Union as a way forward.

The Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, has a role to play in this. He is a former Minister for Foreign Affairs. He could set a precedent within the European Union by divesting the National Pensions Reserve Fund from companies operating in Sudan. This has worked previously, as AWEPA has stated. We persuaded major oil firms to divest from Sudan in the late 1990s and it was one of the decisive factors that forced Khartoum to negotiate an end to its civil war with southern Sudan.

There is a clear link between Khartoum's oil revenues and its spending on weaponry which has been used with devastating effect in Darfur. As Sudan's is an indebted economy, a major Human Rights Watch report has shown that foreign direct investment in oil makes "the all important difference to Khartoum's military spending". This could be regarded as a campaign of intelligent economic pressure. It does not call for a blanket divestment or for divestment from industry such as agriculture, which would directly affect Sudanese civilians. Instead, it calls for targeted divestment from industries that contribute directly to Khartoum's war machine. It is also a pragmatic and strategic campaign. The campaign does not call for the immediate divestment from Total, the French company in which Irish pensions have most heavily invested; rather, it calls for the Irish Government first to use the threat of divestment and for Total, in turn, to use its leverage on the Sudanese Government to stop the killing in Darfur.

Ireland had signed its National Pensions Reserve Fund up to the UN's principles of ethical investment, which is a real commitment to ethical investment. My colleague, Deputy Boyle, has also tabled an ethical investments Bill for debate in the House.

The American states of Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon and California, which have the largest pension fund in the United States, have given this campaign momentum by divesting billions of dollars from Sudan. In Europe, Norway is one of the countries that is said to be considering divesting from Sudan. Divestment is only one of a number of tactics that might apply intelligent pressure on Khartoum to accept a UN peacekeeping force first and then to implement the Darfur peace agreement. Further economic sanctions targeting Khartoum's interests abroad and further military sanctions also remain as possibilities.

When replying to the debate, the Minister of State should take this constructive suggestion into account. I hope he will lead the way.

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