Joe Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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Question 27: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs when Ireland will ratify the Optional Protocol of the United Nations Convention against Torture in view of the departure from equivalence as far as the Good Friday Agreement is concerned. [25239/06]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I refer the Deputy to my response of 10th November, 2005.

On 18 December 2002, the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Draft Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment (OP-CAT). Ireland, along with other EU partners, fully supported the draft Optional Protocol and worked for its adoption at the UN General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights.

The object of the Protocol is to establish a system of regular visits undertaken both by an independent international body and by national bodies to places of detention with a view to preventing torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The international body is to be a subcommittee of the UN Committee against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment. At the national level, States may maintain, designate or establish one or several bodies for the prevention of torture at the domestic level.

As regards our signature of the Optional Protocol, with a view to subsequent ratification, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform informed the Dáil on Tuesday, 8 November, that he is reviewing national legislation to ascertain whether legislative changes would be required before signature and ratification of the Optional Protocol. I understand that he has commenced consultations with other Government Departments and Bodies, including the Department of Health and Children and the Department of Education and Science, in relation to arrangements for the inspection of institutions for which they are responsible.

While it is the case that the UK has already ratified the Optional Protocol, I do not believe that this creates any substantive disparity between the two parts of the island. Significant protection in relation to torture already exists in this jurisdiction. Ireland has ratified the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (entered into force for Ireland on 1 February 1989). That Convention establishes a visiting system predating but similar to that established under OP-CAT. We understand that the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT, the body established under that Convention) has already conducted 3 visits to Ireland in 1993, 1998 and 2002 and is due to visit again this year.