Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister to the House and thank him for his comprehensive contribution. I welcome the Cluster Munitions and Anti-Personnel Mines Bill 2008, which is before the House today and acknowledge that my colleague in the Dáil, Deputy Billy Timmins, introduced a similar Bill earlier in the year. The Bill before us, after amendment in the other House, contains many of the objectives that were in Deputy Timmins's Bill. This House also had a very informative and constructive debate on this issue earlier in the year. I am glad that many of the issues raised in the Seanad are also covered in the Bill.

The Bill contains reference to two similar but very different types of weaponry, cluster bombs and anti-personnel mines. Both are similar in impact but subject to different international conventions. The Convention on Cluster Munitions was signed in Dublin in 2008 and the Convention on the Prohibition of Anti-Personnel Mines was signed in Oslo in 1997. It is significant, as regards avoiding confusion over the two conventions and other treaties and declarations that preceded them, that the two categories are dealt with separately in this Bill.

Cluster munitions are one of the most controversial and despicable weapons to be used in modern warfare. They are designed not to target soldiers or armies but areas of land. Large numbers of unexploded cluster munitions may litter an area, like landmines, for many years after a war has ended. It is often farmland owned by the poorest, in war-torn countries that is left littered with cluster munitions, many the size of coke tins, some bright in colour that attract and kill innocent children in many instances. Today, more than 30 countries produce cluster munitions and up to 20 use them. The first cluster bombs to be used were of German manufacture and dropped during the Second World War, as mentioned by the Minister. As recently as 1999, the US, Britain and the Netherlands used them in Kosovo. The footprint of a single cluster bomb can be as large as a sportsfield. The fragments of exploding submunitions travel unguided at high velocity and often miss their mark, hitting nearby civilian objects in many instances.

The first thing that struck Deputy Timmins when he arrived in the Lebanon to serve with the Irish Army in the 1980s was the number of young children with missing limbs — one leg, no legs, one arm or no arms. Most of these injuries were caused by bomblets from cluster munitions. He says that seeing that first-hand leaves an indelible impact on an individual. It is a dreadful statistic that some 98% of cluster munition casualties are civilians, killed and injured while returning home in the aftermath of conflict or going about their daily work.

In southern Lebanon almost 90% of the land used for farming and grazing is contaminated by unexploded cluster munitions. It is estimated that for more than 400 million living in affected areas, cluster munitions turn their homes and communities into de facto minefields. It is shocking to think that in Vietnam, more than 300 people are still being killed each year as a result of cluster munitions. In Kosovo they were used by NATO, removing the need for the deployment of troops on the ground. People continue to die in Kosovo each year as a result of the 1,400 cluster bombs dropped there. Some of the American cluster bombs dropped were bright yellow in colour and visually appealing to children. The BBC in a programme stated that these bomblets contained an incendiary device, shrapnel and armour-piercing explosive that could pierce steel 25 cm thick.

The Minister has outlined many other areas where cluster munitions were used to devastating effect and I shall not repeat the facts and statistics he outlined. I shall deal with the process that, hopefully, will rid the world of these dreadful weapons. We should be proud that Ireland was part of the Oslo process — a series of global conferences on cluster munitions that began in Oslo in February 2007. The core group of countries, as they were known, included Ireland, Austria, the Holy See, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway and Peru. The Dublin convention, held in Croke Park in May 2008, was the completion of the process. The signing conference will take place next week, on 3 December, in Oslo.

Let us hope this international agreement will bring an end to the use of cluster munitions and secure adequate provision for care and rehabilitation of survivors, as well as the clearance of all contaminated areas. If these aims are achieved our work today will have been worthwhile. The Oslo process will prove to be a beacon of light for all the nations who have to contend with the results of cluster munitions on a daily basis.

Anti-personnel mines are activated by pressure, trip-wire or remote detonation and they kill or disable their victims. Like cluster munitions, fragmentation mines can cause injury from up to 200 metres away and kill at closer distances. The fragments in these mines are metal or glass. The mine ban treaty, sometimes referred to as the Ottawa Convention or the Oslo treaty, was signed in 1997 and is the most comprehensive international instrument to rid the world of the scourge of anti-personnel mines. It deals with everything from mine use, production and trade to victim assistance, mine clearance and stockpile destruction. Ireland formally singed the mine ban treaty on 3 December 1997. It is regrettable that states not party to that treaty include China, Egypt, India, Israel, Pakistan, Russia and the United States. Until some or all of these countries sign up to this treaty the effectiveness of it will not be as robust and as binding as we would all wish.

On the question of investing in companies listed as being involved in the production of cluster munitions, it was deeply regrettable that the National Pensions Reserve Fund invested in some of these companies but they moved swiftly when this was highlighted to end any investment of pension money in companies linked to the manufacture of cluster munitions. I am delighted that Part 4, section 11 of the Bill covers investment of public moneys in munitions companies. The penalties and miscellaneous provisions are also included in Part 5.

I welcome this Bill. It contains most of the provisions provided for in Deputy Timmins's Bill. It is necessary legislation in an area where Ireland has played a proud role and I wish the Minister well when he signs and ratifies the convention in Oslo next week.