Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

I commend Deputy Murphy for proposing the debate, which is very much welcome, as this is an important subject on which we should make our voice heard. I strongly welcome the Minister's commitment to uphold a proud tradition in this country of opposing the proliferation of nuclear weapons and playing an important international role in seeking to prevent the proliferation of such weapons and to bring about nuclear disarmament, hopefully to move us as quickly as possible to a world free of such weapons.

I suspect the majority of people in the House and in the world believe nuclear weapons are an utter obscenity. I find it difficult to comprehend the mindset that came up with such weapons or that states would wish to develop weapons with this obscene destructive power. Following the horrors of Nagasaki and Hiroshima where hundreds of thousands of people were vaporised in an instant and the entire cities laid waste in a few seconds, the notion that any state could claim to be interested in democracy, peace, stability and progressive values while involved in promoting, developing or threatening the use of these weapons is appalling. The madness of nuclear weapons is even more starkly highlighted in the current economic crisis faced by the world where vast numbers of people across the globe, including in Europe, are living in poverty and lack sufficient access to basic public services. While states claim they do not have the money to provide them, in excess of $1 trillion a year is spent on weapons, a considerable amount of which is spent on maintaining nuclear arsenals and producing nuclear weapons and the various industries used to develop them.

We must do everything we can to move towards a world free of nuclear weapons. The Minister is correct that every effort must be made to ensure states that are considering the development of nuclear weapons, outside of those that have them, do not do so whether that is Iran, Syria or any other country. I do not believe claims that countries are trying to prevent nuclear proliferation has great credibility when they fail to deal with the enormous issue of double standards on the part of the main nuclear states and the largest powers in the world, including the US, Russia, China, Britain and France. The other states that have developed nuclear weapons such as North Korea, India, Pakistan and Israel could not have done so without the assistance, co-operation and involvement of the major nuclear states.

If we are serious in confronting this issue, we must address the hypocrisy and double standards in our attitudes to the major powers and their refusal to dismantle their own nuclear arsenals. The Tánaiste referred in his speech to the many specific requirements being imposed on Iran to comply with the non-proliferation treaty and the demands of the International Atomic Energy Authority, but there are no similar demands made of Israel. I do not understand the double standards that operate in regard to that country. It has 200 to 400 nuclear weapons but refuses to sign up to the NPT, which, incidentally, Iran has signed up to and is compliant with. There is no credible evidence that the latter is seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capacity, yet it is subjected to threats of military attack while nothing is done about Israel. Last year the United States increased its annual military aid contribution to Israel from $3 billion to $4 billion and has, in recent years, made arrangements to take nuclear waste from the country. We do not know where waste from the Dimona nuclear reactor is going, but many in Palestine suspect that at least some of it is being dumped under Gaza and Hebron, areas with large Palestinian populations. The credibility of this State is seriously undermined by the involvement of companies based here in the production of components for the nuclear weapons industry and the arms industry generally. We disgrace ourselves further by continuing to facilitate United States warplanes involved in brutal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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