Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will give the Deputy some idea of what I am speaking about in terms of administration, which includes the following: the need to review the existing corpus of environmental legislation to ensure we comply with that treaty; the need to introduce a permit or licensing scheme for Irish citizens who may engage in activities coming within the remit of the treaty; the requirement that any such scheme applying to Irish nationals concerning activities in Antarctica which have an impact on the environment would need to be compliant with the provisions of the Aarhus convention on access to information, public participation in decision making and access to justice in environmental matters; and the provisions of EU directives, such as the public participation directive and the environmental impact assessment directive, might be of relevance. Therefore, any such ratification would potentially involve a significant legislative workload which, unfortunately, because of the cap on numbers in my Department and other current priorities, we are not in a position to deal with. Moreover, while the objectives of the Antarctic Treaty are commendable, Irish accession, in my view, would have minimal practical effect on the achievement of those objectives.

See this speech in context