Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is always good to see the Minister of State. This Bill, which seeks to update the legislation to control the export of dual-use items that can be used for civil or military purposes, is extremely important to make sure that certain products will not end up in the wrong hands, to be used to cause injury or death in regional conflicts or to violate human rights in third countries.

Because the 2008 EU Common Position does not have a direct legal effect in member states, and because the export of military items is a national competence, its provisions must be given effect by national primary legislation. This is why this legislation is required and why we will be supporting the legislation. This legislation is not transposing a directive, which we are often used to doing. It will give full effect to the EU Dual Use Regulation 2021/821.

This legislation is significant. Right now, we see wars continuing to rage in Syria, Yemen, Sudan and, of course, Ukraine, among others. In recent weeks, we have seen the ethnic cleansing of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, as the rest of Europe stood by and did nothing. There was not even a threat of sanctions or any real efforts to force Azerbaijan to recognise human rights. Indeed, there is no chance of Azerbaijan being added to the list of countries that we should not be exporting to because it is just too well tucked in with the European Union. There will therefore be no mention there and that is part of the problem. The rank hypocrisy lies behind this legislation was mentioned in the Dáil as well. The legislation is good, but it is incredibly selective in terms of who we apply it to.

There has been a proliferation of European equipment, weapons and training being exported and used on a daily basis for many years now by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition in Yemen and by the Israeli regime in occupied Palestine. In Yemen, the estimate of how many people have been murdered ranges from 150,000 to 377,000. As far as the European Union is concerned, it is absolutely fine to sell weapons to it. It will continue to sell weapons to it so it can continue to slaughter and murder people. Indeed, I remember that in 2015, when King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia died - he was one of the greatest tyrants and mass murderers in recent times - this State, as well as the Government at the time, decided to insist on lowering the State flags to half-mast for one of the biggest killers of recent decades. That is the type of hypocrisy I am talking about.

The Minister of State and I both know that Saudi Arabia is never going to make it onto that list. It should do, but it is not going to happen. There is a real hypocrisy in Europe that allows the likes of Saudi Arabia and Israel to be considered okay to do business with, despite what we know about their human rights violations.It did not go unnoticed that the current Taoiseach, then Tánaiste, Deputy Varadkar, was touting for business in Saudi Arabia in 2021, just as it was about to carry out 81 executions and as it continued its relentless war of atrocities in Yemen.

The aim of this Bill is to reduce the risk from controlled items and how they might be exported from Ireland and used to cause injury or death in regional conflicts or violate human rights in third countries. Traditionally, Ireland does not have a history of arms manufacturing. The countries predominantly involved in the manufacture of arms are the UK, France, Spain, and Italy. In recent years, however, we have seen huge growth in Irish exports of dual-use or defence technology. It was reported in The Irish Timesin 2020 that the value of military equipment exported from Ireland soared from €42.3 million in 2019 to €108.5 million in 2020. The majority of this equipment goes to the US. Apparently, Ireland shipped €67.5 million worth of military equipment to the US in 2020. For that reason, it is vital that Irish law gives maximum effect to the EU regulation in so far as is practicable, bearing in mind the need to allow businesses who are not selling products with harmful intentions to continue to do their business under the regulations. It is important to point out that many of these companies are developing and exporting good technology with good intentions.

The Bill also gives the Minister the discretion to ban certain items on grounds of public security, prevention of terrorism, or human rights considerations. I hope that this direction is used to its full extent to protect human rights around the world and also to protect Irish neutrality. I hope there will be a lot more willingness to use this legislation than has been shown in past in the failure to prevent the use of Shannon Airport by the US military to transport weapons to Saudi-led coalition countries which have contributed to human rights violations in Yemen. Only a couple of years ago, the Government allowed what were called mid-air refuelling aircraft to go through Shannon Airport. The clue is in the title. Such aircraft would refuel the planes that were dropping bombs on the people of Yemen so that they could continue to drop those bombs without having to go back and refuel. That is the reality, unfortunately, of Government policy. It is turning a blind eye to these horrific violations of human rights.