Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on the Bill. There is no doubt the world has become a much more dangerous place. It is very important that Ireland and the EU as a whole take a consistent approach to the sale of goods that might come into the wrong hands and have an adverse impact on the human rights of people across the globe. The Bill is welcome. It is a good structure that is being put in place, with lists of items and a system of authorisation, particularly in regard to items that have a dual use, giving the Minister the discretion to ban certain items on grounds of public security, prevention of terrorism or human rights considerations, and having an adjudication system. That is a robust and sensible way to approach the matter.

One question I would be interested to hear the Minister of State comment on is that we now have in place across Europe a much wider range of sanctions aimed not only at tradeable items but also at 1,500 officials in the case of the recent sanctions against Russia, and at hundreds of banks, companies, parties and apologists for regimes, with billions of euro worth of assets frozen. To what extent do the powers of the Minister reach into being able to oversee those sorts of sanctions, which are also a part of how we try to put some sort of strength into protections of human rights and protection of communities from terrorist acts or acts of wanton aggression, as we see all too often on our television screens? It seems that those areas in respect of which we seek sanctions present even greater complexity than trading in goods, where there is a more defined supply chain and more identifiable ways of identifying what creates a hazard.

I would also be interested to hear the Minister of State comment on the way in which a responsible Minister assesses issues, such as a risk to public security, prevention of terrorism or human rights considerations, and how that evolves in the context of different conflicts and different conflict zones. Is this an area where there is a fairly fixed and well understood pan-European approach or does it evolve with changing circumstances, and if it does, how does that process work? Is it consultative? Is there a role for the Oireachtas in understanding the approaches that we are taking?

The other thing that strikes me increasingly, as we look at terrorism and acts of warfare, is that it is becoming much more complicated. Increasingly, it is cybercrime. There is a very strong concern about the distortion of political choices by fake news, bots and attempts to hijack social media. Indeed, when we look at some of the regimes that are the greatest source of concern in terms of being the source of aggressive acts against others that jeopardise human rights, we see that there is nothing like the freedom of social media under those regimes when compared to our regimes, which are comparatively vulnerable to attack by those whose motives are entirely hostile to the best interests of either this country or human rights more widely. As we look at the role of the Oireachtas in trying to manage the risks that we now confront as a society, whereby we are seeing greater division and greater willingness to abandon concepts of human rights and multilateralism that have for a long time achieved a degree of consensus, how do we protect ourselves in those other areas that are much less susceptible to lists and specific agents who are legitimate, and who are making sure that legitimate items are not getting into the wrong hands? This is a difficult time, and it seems that this legislation is just one part of a very complex jigsaw. All of us need to become more aware of the potential hazards and the lengths to which some regimes will go to promote their particular views, which, as the Bill states, is contrary to public security, prevention of terrorism and human rights considerations.

I welcome the Bill. I am a member of the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Following our preliminary assessment, we reached the view that this robust Bill is to be welcomed. I would be interested to hear the Minister of State's comments on the wider threats and the use of other methods of sanction and control that might be in the hands of European Union member states to protect the very valuable heritage that we have achieved after such a period of devastating past wars among countries who are members of the EU.

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