Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)

Like Deputy Creighton, I congratulate Deputy Timmins on bringing forward this Bill. As Deputy Creighton and other speakers have pointed out, Deputy Timmins has a vast wealth of experience in this area, having served in the UN and been a member of the Defence Forces. I am disappointed, however, that the Minister, Deputy Dermot Ahern, is unwilling to accept the Fine Gael Bill and instead is awaiting the deliberations of the Croke Park conference.

Ireland was in at the start of this process as a member of the core group of the Oslo agreement, with Austria, the Holy See, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway and Peru. We have played a key role in progressing this work to date, which is why I feel that Ireland should continue to push the agenda with the international diplomatic conference taking place in Dublin from 19 to 30 May next. This is our opportunity as a nation to convince those countries that are still not committed to an outright ban to come on board at the forthcoming conference.

Significant progress has been made since the late Princess Diana was photographed touring an Angolan minefield in a flak-jacket and helmet. Her actions at the time influenced the signing of the Ottawa treaty, which created an international ban on the use of anti-personnel landmines. Since that first conference, which took place in Oslo, progress has been made at further conferences in Lima, Vienna and more recently in Wellington, New Zealand. At the first ever meeting of African countries concerning cluster bombs, 38 of the 39 countries attending the meeting endorsed a strong political "Livingstone Declaration" committing them to negotiating a global ban on the weapons at the Dublin conference. South Africa was the only dissenting voice, arguing that cluster bombs are 98% reliant.

Other countries such as the United States, France, Japan, the United Kingdom and Germany are proposing transition periods and are making every effort to have any international agreement watered down. In the US the Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill 2008, sponsored by Senator Patrick Leahy and Senator Dianne Feinstein, passed through the Senate. The Bill's provisions have been cautiously welcomed by human rights and humanitarian groups. However, the US ban is only for one year, while we want to see a complete ban on the use of cluster bombs.

I welcome the Minister's commitment to establishing a national committee on international humanitarian law, which will have a key role in making recommendations and proposals for incorporating humanitarian law treaties into Irish law. Although cluster bombs fall under the general rules of international humanitarian law, we still have no international agreement on their complete ban. It is important therefore that there is no further delay in setting up the committee. The work of preparing the legislative programme for the Dublin conference should get under way immediately because the conference will attract an international focus.

Sections 7 and 8 of the Bill proposed by Deputy Timmins provide for reporting requirements for banks and financial institutions and allow for the creation of a register of prohibited investment in cluster munitions.

The Minister's commitment that no public funds will be invested in cluster munitions by way of the National Pensions Reserve Fund is welcome. The Minister's promised legislation will be brought forward to give affect to this, but this provision is already incorporated in the Fine Gael Bill now before this House. Any amendments to the Bill could have been put forward on Committee Stage.

New Zealand also appears ready to support a similar move. The guardians of the New Zealand pension fund recently announced their intention to exclude companies that remain involved in the manufacture of cluster munitions. According to reports, an exclusion plan will be implemented when New Zealand signs the treaty prohibiting cluster munitions. I urge the Minister to convince all countries that sign up to any new treaty on cluster munitions to support this line.

Section 6 provides for the confiscation and destruction of cluster ammunition. While the provision is unlikely to have to be invoked here, many countries continue to suffer the consequences of unexploded bomblets long after conflicts have ended. The area, or footprint, as it is known, of a single cluster bomb can be as large as two or three football fields, as Deputy Creighton said.

Handicap International studied the effects of cluster bombs in 24 countries and regions, and found that civilians make up 98% of those killed or injured. Of that figure, 27% of the casualties were children. In 2003, 13,000 cluster bombs, including nearly 2 million bomblets, were used in Iraq. Most recently, it is estimated that Israel dropped 4 million bomblets in southern Lebanon and Hezbollah has also used cluster bombs on targets in Israel. During the bombing of Afghanistan, the Red Cross had to issue warnings to Afghan children not to touch or play with the bomblets that were dropped there.

In the village of Qala Shatar near Harat, for instance, a 12 year old boy picked up a bright yellow soda can and thereby lost his arm. He is not alone as civilians, especially children, continue to suffer. In the Rashd Valley in Tajikistan on the Afghan border, the Government is still battling to clear the bomblets. Two years ago, a ten year old boy called Samir went out to gather firewood for his parents. He picked up a shiny metal ball and was lucky to survive, although the bomb exploded shattering his knee and left him partially blinded.

On 12 June 2007, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia held that the former president of the Serbian Republic of Kranjina was criminally liable for deaths and injuries resulting from cluster-munition rocket attacks on Zagreb. In some attacks on Zagreb, civilians were intentionally targeted. In post-war Kosovo, unexploded cluster bomblets caused more civilian deaths than landmines.

The majority of casualties are from poorer countries where millions of such devices have been scattered over hundreds of square kilometres in many countries. The humanitarian suffering that continues in numerous countries plagued by the lasting effects of these bomblets is the sad legacy of years of conflict. Governments can no longer ignore the long-term effects of these weapons which can remain dormant for years before being detected.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has called for the urgent conclusion of a global pact to ban cluster weapons, even if the big superpowers like Russia, China and the United States are not ready to join. However, I do not want to see any exclusion or derogations from a new treaty. Countries should sign up to a complete ban and we must seize this opportunity to do so. Ireland can play an important role, which is why the Government should be leading the way by having our legislation in place before the Croke Park conference.

During her visit to the Angolan minefields, the late Princess Diana stated: "The world is too little aware of the waste of life, limb and land which anti-personnel landmines are causing among some of the poorest people on earth." We have banned anti-personnel landmines so now let us take the next step and ban cluster munitions. We must prevent the next large-scale humanitarian catastrophe before more countless innocent people are injured or killed. Deputy Timmins's Bill charts the way forward for the Government. I urge the Minister to take on board the proposals from this debate. I wish him well in striving to secure agreement at the international diplomatic conference in Croke Park in May.

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