Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputies for their contributions. I welcome the fact that there is all-party agreement in this area and I realise that the contributions were made in the spirit of improving the Bill. I agree wholeheartedly with Deputy Ó Snodaigh that even though Ireland is a small country - although, as Deputy Barrett said, we often punch above our weight - and even though issues may not arise in terms of what goes on within our nation, we do have some responsibility to show the way. I welcome the contributions that recognised this.

I am grateful to Deputy Barrett for the positive way in which he kicked off. He is correct in stating that neutrality confers obligations on us. We cannot stand idly by and allow bestial and horrific things to happen elsewhere without somehow being morally responsible for them. We may not be instrumental in the horrors but we have a responsibility to call a halt. The Deputy was also right in stating that domestic legislation should reflect those moral obligations we assume.

The Deputy also queried the number of signatories to the document. I understand that since the document read by the Deputy was prepared, there have been four additional signatories, which explains the difference.

The Deputy raised an interesting point about the structure of the United Nations. I am one of the few people to stand in this Chamber as an elected representative who worked for a period in the UN, and I agree that it is a far from perfect organisation. There are issues in the UN which undermine and diminish - and may possibly destroy - the institution. That said, it is the best we have, and we should look forward to improving it. The current and previous Secretaries General have spoken about reform, and we should assist them in that.

There is an old saying that in international diplomacy there are interests rather than principles. Certainly, as far as the UN is concerned, there are occasions when crude, narrowly focused, political national interests trump the principles on which the organisation is built. It is an imperfect body, but for all we can detract from it, we should instead assist and build on it. That is Deputy Barrett's view and it is mine too.

Deputies Barrett and Higgins both mentioned the slow pace at which the UN moves. This point was made specifically by Deputy Higgins about negotiations on the verification and compliance protocol. They have taken an extraordinarily long time and collapsed in 2001 after the US Administration withdrew its support. This is a classic example of the point made by Deputy Barrett that the crudest, narrowest political interests of a nation can determine points of principle. This had more to do with the US elections at the time than anything else. Recent efforts to improve compliance have included the establishment of the implementation support unit, based in Geneva, which I mentioned, and a number of other confidence-building measures.

However, the only way to make the UN truly effective in this area is for those countries that are outside the main discussion - one of the great advantages we have is that we are slightly outside on some of these big issues - to point the finger and argue for progress. Since its entry into force in 1975, states parties to the BTWC have striven to implement the convention, and this is something we should look to in the future.

Deputies Barrett, Higgins and Ó Snodaigh mentioned the issue of transport of biological weapons through Ireland. There is domestic legislation, the Air Navigation (Foreign Military Aircraft) Order 1952, which prohibits foreign military aircraft from flying over or landing in Ireland except by express permission. I realise this is an imperfect instrument, but it is an item of domestic legislation. By way of clarification, it will be an offence within the terms of this legislation to have a biological weapon anywhere in the State, including an airport or a harbour. This provides an answer to the query raised by Deputy Ó Snodaigh.

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