Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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145. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade recognising that Ireland has signed the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, a humanitarian pledge to stigmatise, prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons, and that nuclear weapons are the only weapons of mass destruction not yet explicitly prohibited under international law, if he will urgently seek to establish negotiations to create the conditions for a treaty to ban nuclear weapons, in order to fill this unacceptable legal gap. [36924/15]

Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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I would like to thank the Deputy for his timely question regarding current developments in relation to Nuclear Disarmament. In line with our long standing leadership role with regard to the promotion of nuclear disarmament, Ireland has been deeply involved in the Humanitarian Consequences Initiative, including a series of conferences held prior to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference earlier this year. This debate has focused on the serious risks and impacts associated with any nuclear weapon detonation, accidental or deliberate.

Following the third HINW (Humanitarian impact of Nuclear Weapons) Conference in Vienna last December, the Government of Austria launched a Humanitarian Pledge. This represents a commitment by nations to work together to fill the legal gap which currently exists for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons and for the implementation of Article VI of the NPT Treaty which calls for all States to identify and implement effective measures for nuclear disarmament. Ireland supported the Austrian pledge, subsequently adapted as the Humanitarian Pledge. As of this week, 122, States, including Ireland have signed the pledge.

Following the failure of the NPT Review Conference to achieve an agreed outcome, Ireland has worked with a group of like-minded partners, to ensure that work on the Humanitarian Pledge should continue. It will therefore be put forward to the United Nations General Assembly as a resolution later this month.

Ireland is also striving to build on the impetus for change created by the Humanitarian Initiative by putting forward, with our like-minded partners, a draft resolution which would establish an open ended working group with the aim of beginning negotiations on a process leading to the implementation of effective, legally binding measures for the elimination of Nuclear Weapons. Irish officials are active in promoting this resolution and the Humanitarian Pledge in ongoing discussions in the United Nation’s First Committee.