Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Ahern. I also welcome the Bill. I thank the Minister of State for his general overview of it and the detailed outline of what the various sections contain. I reserve the right to strengthen the proposed legislation through amendments on Committee Stage.

The Bill has many worthy aims. It will regulate arms brokering in Ireland and by Irish citizens abroad, and will introduce controls on the sale of technical help, software and other technologies that could be used for military purposes. It will also give Government officials the power to inspect and audit companies involved in exporting military goods or dual-use products. I understand these include chemicals, high-performance computer components and telecommunications software that have civil and military uses. Penalties for breaching the export laws are to be increased from a maximum of €12,700, the equivalent of £10,000 under the 1983 law, to a two-year jail sentence. One could say, "So far, so good."

The arms trade is, to put it mildly, an unpleasant business. Given the new uncertainty in the world presented by the perceived terrorist threat, the continued presence of armed conflict in many of the world's poorest areas, and the continued conflict in the Middle East, etc., many involved in the arms industry have become very rich. We are perhaps cocooned from reality in this country. As a small neutral state, some may believe that we have no arms industry, but that is not true. I thank Amnesty International's Irish division for its great work on this issue. Amnesty International points out that the quote attributed to the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Ahern, "Ireland does not have an arms trade", is deeply unfortunate and quite disingenuous given the legislation he is debating. Amnesty International states that Ireland has an arms trade and that the Government needs to acknowledge this fact if it is to be serious about controlling it. It is concerned that the content of the Bill outlined in the Minister's statement omits certain key requirements for an effective export and licensing control system.

One important area not addressed is a monitoring system for end users of these exports. The degree to which the legislation will exercise control over Irish citizens relocating outside Europe and thereby bypassing European checks is unclear. Fine Gael believes we must recognise that Ireland's existing export control system for arms trading is inadequate. There is a lack of transparency and accountability in the current system and this has created a situation whereby there is an absence of democratic overview by the Oireachtas and journalists. Members of the public cannot find out what is being exported from Ireland or what it is being used for.

In May 2004 Forfás issued a report entitled Export Licensing of Military and Dual Use Goods in Ireland. It stated clearly that it can be estimated that actual exports of controlled military products and components are €10 million to €20 million annually. The report also stated that the system has areas needing improvement, namely, the absence of dedicated primary national legislation governing the military licensing system, a number of recognised gaps in what is controlled under the legislation, scope for a more proactive approach, especially in the provision of advance information and advice, scope for greater involvement on an advisory and consultative basis to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment in the range of relevant State resources outside the Department, and strengthening of the relationship between the Department and Customs and Excise to ensure the most effective controls possible are being applied.

Other areas to be considered include more proactive and wider enforcement, especially regarding possible exporters who are not applying for licences, rotation of staff at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the Department of Foreign Affairs, with a need for greater retention of corporate memory and expertise, increased and more structured access in the process to appropriate specialist technical and other expertise, and increased transparency of the decision-making process and criteria. I want the Minister of State to confirm that these weaknesses have been dealt with under the provisions of this Bill. Unless he can give such a cast-iron undertaking, we will seek to improve the Bill on Committee Stage.

The Forfás report states:

In modernising and developing the system, Ireland in common with other countries must balance two competing interests, namely:

the economic or "trade" interest of minimising administrative costs, reducing unnecessary regulatory burdens on legitimate exporters, and ensuring that Ireland does not unnecessarily reduce its attractiveness to international mobile investment, particularly in the area of high technology dual-use goods and services;

the "control" interest in terms of minimising the danger that any military or dual-use good produced in Ireland would find its way to internationally undesirable uses, meeting international legally binding and political commitments, and generally protecting and enhancing Ireland's good name and reputation.

If the Minister of State wants my advice, he would be better off concentrating on the latter rather than the former.

We must safeguard our economic competitiveness, our jobs base and the future of businesses in this country, but I need not remind the House of the horror unfolding in Darfur, Iraq, Afghanistan, Myanmar and hundreds of locations throughout the world. We must ask ourselves if we can really have Irish participation, even in a minor way, on our conscience.

The need for this Bill arises from the fact that the EU does not yet have a common peace and defence policy. National governments decide on these issues and, as a result, there is a mishmash of approaches throughout the EU. The time has come for Ireland to define the circumstances in which it would depart from neutrality and take part in an EU defence entity. Instead of just accepting the terms of this future defence arrangement, Fine Gael advocates that Ireland take a full and active role in the development of this defence arrangement.

Our involvement in any future EU common security and defence system should be guided by five key commitments, namely, the commitment to adhere to the fundamental principles of the UN, the commitment to the pursuit of universal nuclear and biological disarmament and a promise never to use either type of weapon, the commitment to mutual defence with our EU neighbours but with specific provisions that would allow Ireland to decide whether to get involved in any conflict on a case-by-case basis, the commitment to providing peacekeeping and peacemaking operations, and the commitment to respect the right of other EU member states to enter other military alliances. The House might consider whether the terms of how arms are traded could be included in this.