Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That, pursuant to Standing Order 154, it be an instruction to the Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment that it has power to make provision in the Minerals Development Bill 2015 to prohibit prospecting for mercury and primary mercury mining pursuant to Article 3.3 of the Minamata Convention on Mercury done at Geneva on 19th January, 2013, and to change the title of the Bill and make other consequential amendments required to take account of the inclusion of such provisions.

On Second Stage of the Minerals Development Bill 2015 on 22 February my colleague, the Minister of State at the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy Seán Kyne, indicated to the House his intention to table amendments on Committee Stage to give effect to certain obligations under the Minamata Convention on mercury, which was signed by Ireland in 2013 and which will prohibit primary mining of mercury. In effect, the motion before the House allows for consideration of these amendments by the Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment in the context of its consideration of the Minerals Development Bill 2015 tomorrow, Wednesday, 17 May.

The convention, agreed to and adopted in 2013, is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment against the adverse effects of mercury. It focuses on a global and ubiquitous metal that, while naturally occurring, has broad uses in everyday objects and is released to the atmosphere, soil and water from a variety of sources. Controlling the human sources of releases of mercury throughout its lifecycle has been a key factor in shaping the provisions under the convention. The provisions of the convention include a ban on new mercury mines, the phasing out of existing ones, the phasing out and phasing down of mercury use in a number of products and processes, control measures for emissions to air and releases to land and water, and the regulation of the informal sector of small-scale gold mining. The convention also addresses the interim storage of mercury and its disposal once it becomes waste and sites contaminated by mercury, as well as broader health issues.

Ireland officially signed the Minamata Convention in October 2013 at the diplomatic conference in Kumamoto, Japan. The purpose of the Minister of State's amendments is to insert a new Part 8 into the Minerals Development Bill which will effect in Irish law a ban on primary mercury mining, implementing one of a number of actions necessary to allow Ireland to ratify the convention in 2017. No primary mercury mining occurs in Ireland.

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