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

Often these issues around disarmament and non-proliferation come to the fore when individual state actors are concerned but it is the bedrock of the treaties that underlie all our efforts in this area which are more important because they establish that consensus in international law by which we can approach any country or any entity that might be acting against that very strong norm that has been built in the international system for so many years now.

After I tabled this question, Deputy Duncan Smith from the Labour Party suggested that we have speaking time in the Dáil about disarmament and non-proliferation, given our strong history in that area and the fact that we will go onto the Security Council next year. He will submit a request so we can have a fuller conversation about it.

It is 50 years since the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, NPT, came into force. It came into force as a result of the resolution that came from the Irish Government in the early 1960s about the non-dissemination of nuclear weapons and leading to the NPT, which we were the first country to sign in 1968. We have good bona fides in this area. It is important that during the next two years, we return to those treaties, including the NPT, which we ratified, as the Minister said, on the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, but let us not forget the old treaties as well, which have not entered into force, including the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, CTBT, for example, on nuclear weapon testing.

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