Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I also welcome the delegation. I can see where Senator Black is coming from. In any assessment of an application for an authorisation to export military equipment, consideration is given to, among other things, Ireland's commitments under international conventions and multilateral agreements, particularly the Convention on Cluster Munitions. As the Senator noted, that convention prohibits all use - the production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions - in order to address the humanitarian consequences and the unacceptable harm caused by their use. As the Senator acknowledged, we were a lead state in the design of and one of the first states to sign and ratify the convention.

The EU common military list, which underpins export controls of military equipment in the EU, covers a comprehensive array of military equipment and technology across 22 categories. Category ML-3 of the EU list includes cluster munitions, specifically bomblets and minelets, to which the Senator referred. As the items targeted by the convention are considered as part of military export controls, repeating them in the Bill would not be an advantage and I fear that it may have unintentional consequences in limiting the scope of the Bill in controlling certain items. While I must oppose these amendments, I am happy to engage with the Senator's office ahead of Report Stage to see if we can come up with something that does not have those unintended consequences but lays out the position. It may be hard to achieve but I am happy to engage with the Senator on it.