Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

For far too long hypocrisy prevailed in this House while those lecturing republicans who were involved in a war about an arms trade were allowing an arms trade of a much deadlier nature to be carried out with the support of the Government. Thankfully, through the peace process, we have relative peace in Ireland, yet it has taken a long time for the introduction of this legislation, which hopefully will bring peace to other countries which have suffered the effects of weapons, produced under licence here, that have been used to torture individuals. I will not take lectures or snide comments from Government Deputies or Ministers, when one reads about an Irish registered company brokering deals during the civil war in Liberia or notes that Irish companies make parts for Apache attack helicopters used to attack populations in the Gaza Strip and the like.

The introduction of this legislation is to be welcomed. I commend Amnesty International and AFrI, in particular, two groups I know were to the fore in highlighting the contradictions that existed in Government's approach where, on the one hand, it was said there was no arms trade here and, on the other, the Government was saying it attached priority to human rights in terms of Ireland's foreign policy. At least that is behind us and there is a considerable job of work facing us.

The legislation needs to be tightened up and to have teeth for it to be effective. It is not good enough for most of the teeth in the Bill to be provided for by way of ministerial order or statutory instruments. As the Bill goes through the House, whether on Committee or Report Stage, we need further explanation of the extent of such orders or, if possible, their detail in the full text of the Bill to ensure the system of licensing and control of exports of equipment is as transparent as possible. Such equipment has dual use purposes and has been shown in the past to be used in human rights abuses abroad. Also, such equipment has been used for military security and policy, the MPS equipment. There is also the direct military equipment, the production of which has created jobs in Ireland which is welcome. However, with the production of such equipment there is a responsibility not only on the Government which licenses it but on the companies that produce it to ensure that its end use is right and proper.

The real potential of this Bill remains to be seen because much of its impact will be determined by the quality and content of the regulations that follow, and that is dependent on the Minister responsible. I urge the Minister, if he is intends to stick to the passing of ministerial orders or statutory instruments to give full effect to this legislation, to pay heed to a document produced in the previous Dáil by the Department of the Taoiseach, namely, Regulating Better, a Government White Paper setting out six principles on better regulations. One of its actions on statutory instruments states that the Government will "give consideration to the more effective scrutiny of Statutory Instruments by the Houses of the Oireachtas". We do not have that mechanism in place other than in the form of the Sub-Committee on European Scrutiny. We have a duty to better scrutinise the statutory instruments and the ministerial orders, which are the teeth of much legislation that is passed in this House. I hope the Minister takes cognisance of that and puts in place some mechanism whereby the House can scrutinise whatever orders or instruments will be passed in future.

The legislation is welcome and hopefully the points raised by Amnesty International and others who studied this legislation will be taken on board. In that way, we would end up with legislation that will be an example to other countries that have grappled with such legislation and had difficulties because of the nature of dual use goods, but who have taken on board that it is the end use rather than the dual use that is the key consideration.

The Stockholm institute has produced a best practice guide for such equipment. I hope some of its guidelines will be better reflected in the legislation when we come to deal with it on Report Stage.

Tá súil agam go dtarlóidh an athrú sin agus go mbeimid in ann teacht ar ais anseo ag deireadh an próiséas seo le Bille gur féidir linn bheith sásta leis agus bródúil as. Ba cheart don reachtaíocht seo a bheith mar sampla don chuid eile don domhain. Impím ar an Aire an méid sin a thogaint ar bórd agus déanamh cinnte go mbeidh leasuithe dá réir déanta ar Chéim an Choiste agus ar an dTuarascáil.

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