Shane Ross (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Sargent to the House. I am particularly happy to welcome this Minister of State, because when I raised this issue four years ago, Deputy Roche was in command at the time. I presume this issue will get a more sympathetic hearing from Deputy Sargent.

The issue is that Ireland should accede to the Antarctic Treaty. I was staggered to discover that this treaty was agreed in 1959 and signed in 1961. The signatories include all European countries bar Luxembourg, Portugal and Ireland. That is a fairly shocking indictment of our attitude to the Antarctic and to the environment. In essence, this treaty is a litmus test of the commitment of Ireland to the environment, especially that of the Antarctic.

The treaty has several elements to it. The first element is to bind those signatories to keeping the Antarctic for purely peaceful purposes. Not many people could argue with this commitment. The second element is that there should be freedom between the signatory nations to share scientific knowledge, which should be freely available among them. I cannot see any reason for the last Minister's statement that this would not happen in the immediate term. Another element is that the territorial integrity of the Antarctic should be respected by all those nations. There is also a commitment that there be no nuclear activity nor nuclear testing in the area. There are several other issues, such as inspections, which are too detailed to outline in this debate.

There are significant benefits to Ireland and to the world from this. Climate change is now so important and we must respect places like the Antarctic as one of the few non-invaded zones of the world. It would be shocking if Ireland continued to refuse to sign this treaty. We have a great history in this area and the names of people like Sir Ernest Shackleton, Tom Crean and others will be always linked with the Antarctic. It is somewhat hypocritical to champion those people as great Irishmen and yet be one of the few European nations which noticeably has not signed the treaty.

I beg the Minister of State to relieve us of this embarrassment. He should make a promise today that Ireland will join those nations whose commitment to the environment, to the Antarctic and to sharing scientific knowledge is clear. We should not be numbered among those countries that are showing extraordinary reluctance to sign this 46 year-old treaty.