Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 10:

In page 21, to delete lines 13 to 16.

I have tabled this amendment to section 25 as I have a concern about section 25(3), specifically due to the manner in which it disapplies section 25(1) to brokers who have "an authorisation or other licence or consent for the provision of the brokering services with like effect to an authorisation, granted to the person according to the laws of a Member State other than the State."This is not an appropriate provision. As I said earlier, Ireland is a neutral country. It is markedly different than many other EU countries in that we do not have a significant weapons manufacturing industry. Returning to my earlier point regarding cluster munitions, we know from Human Rights Watch that at least 12 other EU countries including France, Germany, Spain and Italy, have weapon manufacturers which produce these awful weapons. If, for example, a broker based in Ireland decided it wished to export cluster munitions from Germany to a third country and received such authorisation from the German Government, would it be able to do so, all the while being based in Ireland? That is the question. If this is the case, it is unacceptable and is one example of how this system could be exploited. In a separate example, France exports large numbers of weapons to Saudi Arabia despite the well-documented horrific actions of that country in Yemen. Could an Irish broker utilise section 25(3) to obtain authorisation to export arms to Saudi Arabia from France under this legislation? If this is the case, I strongly urge the Minister of State to reflect and accept this amendment or maybe to bring his own version at a later Stage, which would be even more helpful.