Prohibition of Depleted Uranium Weapons Bill 2009: Second Stage.
Question proposed: “That the Bill be now read a Second Time.”

Senator Dan Boyle: It is a pleasure and a privilege to commence the debate on Second Stage of the Prohibition of Depleted Uranium Weapons Bill 2009. The Seanad has a long and distinguished history of raising issues that would not ordinarily be high on the political priority list. The structure and history of the Seanad allows us to introduce such issues.

The Bill provides the opportunity to build on the work of this and previous Governments in leading international debate on specific means of international conflict resolution. As far back as the late 1950s the then Minister for External Affairs, Mr. Frank Aiken, was prominent in the first anti-nuclear proliferation treaty and Ireland played a proud role in that situation. The more recent example has been the work of this Government when the current Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy Dermot Ahern, when he was Minister for Foreign Affairs, was the instigator and participant in an international coalition that brought about a treaty on the use of cluster bombs.

The legislation before the House is an attempt to build on that reputation and to agree there is a class of weapon that needs to be treated in a similar way and that Ireland has a moral authority to lead this debate. There are potential international partners with whom we should be willing to coalesce and progress the debate to another level. The Bill is more or less a direct transcription of a Bill that has been passed in the Republic of Costa Rica, one of two countries which have adopted this legislation, the other being Belgium. Progress has been very prominent in New Zealand, a country with which Ireland compares itself regularly in terms of size and with a shared history. We are also nations which are committed to the specific resolution of disputes.

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