Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This debate has thrown up all the different types of "Star Trek" references and every other reference to space and space use. I was thinking about speaking on this motion on my way down to Dublin today. There was an item on the radio about the James Webb telescope which has sent fancy pictures back of the formation of the galaxy many thousands of years ago. It was probably appropriate that the motion of confidence was tabled today instead of this motion because they both hark back to the past and how great it was, rather than look to the future.

The discussion on this motion was assigned a couple of hours today when important legislation was to be taken. It is to approve a treaty that was ratified more than 50 years ago. It shocking that we ratified a treaty 50 years ago and we have still not put it into law. It shows how the Government works. I remember all of the other treaties that have been ratified and never enacted, such as the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD. These treaties were passed and enacted, not 50 years ago but ten, 11 or 12 years ago, and nothing was done with regard to implementing them.

I wondered why this was being done now. In many countries, space use is for a military purpose. Maybe we just have to make sure we get all of our ducks in a row and ratify these treaties to ensure there is no comeback in this area in future. The Minister of State outlined that space development has many useful purposes in peacetime but many developments in space have been done from a military point of view. Will we see this tied in with the European Space Agency in a few years' time for something it will do with satellites for the defence of Europe?

It would be interesting to see what that is.

The Minister went on to say that, "As it stands, Ireland is bound by the Outer Space Treaty and the Liability Convention under international law, while not complying with the requirements of the Constitution required for the domestic legal system to recognise those obligations." That is a strange statement. How can we comply with something when it has not been ratified under the Constitution, which is the primary legal article in our State? I do not see how that complies. It would be interesting to see what the legal situation is of any work that has gone on before now on that. I am not saying this as a way of scuppering anything that is going on at the minute but why this is all happening now is very interesting. It is interesting it is happening when there is talk about Ireland moving into the European defence mechanisms and everything else like that. It will be interesting to see how this develops over the next year or two. We will see then how it goes. I hope much of the work that is ongoing and that is of value will continue. I hope we will not see the Irish space agency working with the ESA on developing satellite weapons technology and stuff like that. That is probably what is at the heart of this, when it comes to happen.

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