John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 106: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the steps being taken to pursue the issue of nuclear disarmament by his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19570/06]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The only multilateral legally binding obligation in respect of nuclear disarmament is enshrined in the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which came into existence following an initiative taken by the late Frank Aiken. His pioneering efforts were duly recognised when Ireland was invited in 1968 to be the first country to sign the Treaty after it had been negotiated. Since then, support for the Treaty has been our highest priority in the area of disarmament and non-proliferation.

Ireland is committed to the full implementation of the NPT and, in particular, believes that the 13 practical steps outlined in the Outcome Document of the 2000 NPT Review Conference set out a clear road by which the objective of nuclear disarmament can be achieved. Regrettably, the most recent such Conference, in May of last year, failed to build on this outcome and to agree any substantive recommendations or conclusions. The next scheduled Review Conference of the NPT will not take place until 2010. It will be preceded by a series of preparatory meetings beginning in 2007. Ireland will in the meantime continue to work with like-minded countries in identifying areas where implementation of the Treaty can be strengthened, including in the area of nuclear disarmament.

In Geneva last March, the Permanent Representative of Ireland to the Conference on Disarmament reiterated the Irish position with regard to the NPT and emphasised the need for greater transparency on the part of the Nuclear Weapons States in their respective nuclear disarmament processes. Ireland will also continue to work within the forum of the Conference of Disarmament to identify possible areas of convergence on the way forward on nuclear disarmament.

Ireland is a founding member of the New Agenda Coalition (NAC), a grouping that seeks to promote a new momentum into multilateral consideration of nuclear disarmament. Ireland, together with our partners in the NAC, submitted a resolution on the NPT to the First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly last October, which, inter alia, reaffirmed the outcome of the 2000 NPT Review Conference as the framework for the pursuit of nuclear disarmament and called for universalisation of the Treaty and the fulfilment by all NPT States Parties of their respective nuclear disarmament obligations. The resolution attracted widespread support.

Most recently, Ireland has committed itself to co-funding a seminar on NPT issues organised by the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR). The seminar is taking place in Geneva this week and will examine such issues as compliance, nuclear disarmament measures and possible ways to strengthen the NPT. Ireland also intends to participate in a seminar in Canada next September that will examine the issue of nuclear disarmament obligations, as set out in Article VI of the Treaty, with a view to identifying further ways to make progress on this vital question.