Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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Question 135: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the specific reservation which has prevented the Government from declaring its support to date in 2005 for the Arms Trade Treaty. [33715/05]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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With regard to the proposed International Arms Trade Treaty, ATT, the General Affairs and External Relations Council, at its meeting on 3 October 2005, acknowledged the growing support throughout the world for an international treaty to establish common standards for the global trade in conventional arms. The Council also agreed that binding standards, consistent with the existing responsibilities of states under relevant international law, would be critical in tackling proliferation. It was further agreed that the United Nations was the only forum that could deliver a truly universal instrument and the Council called for the start of a formal process at the UN at the earliest opportunity.

As I made clear in my reply to Question No. 82 of 6 October, Ireland fully supports this approach and believes it is the best way for taking this issue forward. Ireland strongly supports the process of developing strict controls on arms and will continue to participate actively within the UN and at other international fora to promote the objective of strengthening arms controls globally.

In this context, I would recall that officials from my Department have participated in a number of meetings on the ATT with other government representatives and civil society in the past two years. We also ensured that this issue was discussed within the European Union during our Presidency last year.