Government announces fund to assist flooding victims

The Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton T.D, and the Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan TD today (8th November 2011) announced that the Government has agreed to set up a Humanitarian Assistance Scheme with an allocation of up to €10 million to provide means-tested financial support to people who have suffered damage to their homes as a result of the recent flooding.

The Government has also established a cross-Departmental/Agency Working Group, chaired by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, to oversee the State’s collective response to those affected by the flooding.

The working Group* will identify any gaps that may exist within existing services to address the consequences of the flooding for individuals, families and communities.  If additional services are required, including humanitarian assistance, the Group will report to Government with proposals to address these issues.

Minister Burton said: “I have been to visit many of the families who have suffered from the flooding and I have seen first hand the damage to some people’s homes.’’

Minister Hogan said: “I welcome the establishment of this Group which will work in a speedy and focused way to ensure that those who require the assistance of the State following the severe flooding of 24 October get it.  It will build on the enormous work already done on the ground by Community Welfare Officers, the Irish Red Cross, Local Authorities and others.’’

Minister Burton said:  “The Government recognises the devastation suffered by many families arising from these floods.  Staff from the Department of Social Protection (former Community Welfare Officers) have already made house to house calls to individuals they have identified as being vulnerable at this difficult time. In addition, emergency clinics have been established in the worst affected areas to offer help to households. Payments are currently being made to families who need urgent financial assistance with basics such as food, clothing and bedding. This funding will continue to be disbursed to individuals and families as required.

The main details of the Humanitarian Assistance Fund are as follows:

• It will be administered on the ground by staff from the Department of Social Protection (former Community Welfare Officers),
• It will provide hardship alleviation assistance, as opposed to full compensation, to householders affected by the flooding.
• Damage to a person’s home and its basic contents, such as carpets, flooring, furniture, household appliances and bedding, will be the main criteria. Structural damage may also be considered.
• Eligibility will be subject to a means test.
• Assistance will not be given for losses which are covered by insurance.
• Commercial and business losses will not qualify for humanitarian assistance.
• Applications will be prioritised so that the most urgent ones can be dealt with very quickly.

“I am conscious that for some families it could be weeks if not months before the damage to their homes is fully apparent. I would like to reassure families that this humanitarian assistance scheme will be there for them in the months ahead,’’ Minister Burton concluded.

Flooding in Dublin South-East

Flooding in Dublin South-East, Monday 9.15pm

Message just received from Dublin City Council:

Due to severe rainfall this evening the Major Emergency Plan for Dublin has been activated to deal with the flooding.

http://www.dublincity.ie/WATERWASTEENVIRONMENT/MAJOR_EMERGENCY_PLANNING/Pages/MajorEmergencyPlanning.aspx

Flooding in Dublin South East, Monday 8pm

Reports are coming in from various parts of the constituency about flooding on public roads and in houses and flats due to the continuing heavy downpour.

Out of hours and emergency numbers for Dublin City Council are currently not working. This matter is being looked in to. Council staff have been called out to deal with blocked gullies and drains. However problems are being experienced throughout the city.

The primary response service in this instance is Dublin Fire Brigade. Every unit is currently out on call dealing with individual cases of flooded homes as well as broken down cars and other flooding related issues. Extra services have been called in but the Fire Brigade can only deal with problems on a call by call basis. People who are experiencing flooding in their homes are asked to get in touch with their local station and to remain patient as they will be dealt with in turn.

Updates will follow as we have them.

Why should you vote for Gay Mitchell?

Keep scrolling to see why you should vote for Gay!…

“My political conviction is informed by an ethos based on the four pillars of rights, responsibilities, enterprise and social justice. They are the values that have guided me for the last 32 years and will continue to guide me if elected President. They are the values that will help Ireland overcome some of our present economic and ethical difficulties and make us a country which others will again want to emulate, as they once did.

I want to return to a society based on principles; to a less harsh and a more merciful and forgiving society. There is something broken in our society and I believe that the ethos I am proposing has the potential to help us become, not just more ethical and happier, but really inclusive.

As President, I would put the welfare of our people at the heart of the Presidency, which can be a very powerful institution and can symbolise all that is good about our way of life. I would like to continue much of the practice of President McAleese by quietly working, often below the radar, to make our country a better place. I hope that by example, I can help others to start on a new journey in search of values that will take us through the iconic year of 2016 and beyond.”

National Tourism Development Authority (Amendment) Bill 2011

I thank Deputy Brendan Griffin for sharing his time. It is particularly gracious of him, given recent events in Croke Park.

Deputy Griffin touched upon a number of aspects. He made the point of having a 12-month tourism cycle and I agree with him that this is crucial. There is no reason not to have tourists coming to Ireland in every month of the year and in large numbers. Attractions such as Christmas markets in small towns is one excellent suggestion.

I wish to speak about a particular aspect of tourism, activity-based or sports tourism, where people travel to take part in sporting events around the country, whether a marathon, a half marathon or a triathlon. Before I became involved so actively in politics, I used to participate regularly in such sporting events. I have been to Achill and Killarney and twice to Westport. I have also travelled to the UK and to France for events.

This sports market sector of tourism is very significant as competitors spend a lot of money. There is the money spent on travelling abroad to an event or travelling to a domestic event. The kit and the registration all costs money and accommodation costs must also be catered for. I will give an example of my own expenditure. Last year I participated in the Gael Force adventure triathlon in Killary Harbour. The entrance fee for the competition was €100; I spent €200 on accommodation for two nights and another €200 during the course of the weekend. This amounts to €500 spent in Westport and only because the race was being held there. I was accompanied by a number of friends and that resulted in €4,000 being spent in Westport. Three of my friends had travelled from the UK so this was new money into Ireland. The race attracted 3,000 competitors. If each competitor spent as much as I spent that weekend, this amounts to more than €1 million into the Westport economy in one weekend.

This is a very lucrative event for the area of Westport and the town is to be commended on branding itself as a destination for activity events. These events provide a new opening for tourism revenue. Money came into the town of Westport during the Gael Force festival and this came from first-time visitors and those from abroad and also repeat visitors. For instance, once I had visited the town I was prepared to return on further visits and a few months later I returned to compete in a 10 km adventure race called Turf Guy. I am hoping to compete again this year. This event will bring more money into Westport.
Competitors in these events are young with a high disposable income. They may not have mortgage costs or dependants and they can spend their money on sporting activities. Ireland should be marketed as a destination for more international sporting events and sports tourism as this could provide significant revenue from people with high disposable incomes who spend their money in a way that is good for them and good for the local economies. I know the Minister of State is aware of my views but anything he can do in this regard would be very welcome.

The Volvo Ocean Race will be held next year. I wish the Chinese-Irish team the best of luck. I wished them well as they sailed from the River Liffey. I applaud the initiative on the part of the tourist board and the race will be a great event for Ireland. This is the type of event we should encourage and use to our advantage. I attended a Diaspora Matters event a few nights ago which was to highlight our networks abroad, of which the Volvo Ocean Race is another example. There are so many Irish people and those with Irish links living all over the world and they are all willing to become involved in related events and activities, to play a part in the renewal of the country and to help attract people to the country. This Bill is an important measure and along with other initiatives from the Minister’s Department, it is very welcome.

What is the secret of Silicon Valley? And can we bring it to Ireland?

Facebook HQ, Palo Alto, Silicon Valley. In the lobby is a flat-screen TV showing a rotating digital globe. White beams bounce around it continuously from point to point, crossing oceans, linking continents. New friendships as they are made in real time between people’s Facebook pages all over the world. This is ground zero of the social media universe and it’s pretty damn cool.

In my suit shoes, trousers and shirt I am way overdressed. I don’t know how many millions of dollars the guy I’m meeting is worth, whether he’s five years younger or older, but I’m pretty sure, like everyone else I’ve met so far this week, he’ll be in Converse, jeans and a t-shirt. And he is.

He gives me a tour of their operation – all open plan, bikes against desks, graffiti on the walls. We grab a coconut water from one of the free-of-charge coffee docks and head out to the basketball court, where he likes to brainstorm with his team, he tells me. As it happens we’re the same age and so we get on quite well, chatting about everything from tech to politics to new sporting interests (it turns out we’ve both recently taken to a bit of climbing).

After about an hour we part company and I head down California Avenue in the sun, carrying a gift from my first actual Facebook friend. It’s a poster that confidently proclaims: “done is better than perfect”.

Facebook has surpassed Google in the ‘coolest place to work stakes’. The only thing cooler is to work for yourself in a hyped-up start-up, which Facebook and Google once were themselves. And of which there are many more out here.

So what is it about this place that young guys and girls can so casually stroll out of college and set up companies, industries even, that will come to dominate our known universe? Or set up rivals to destroy them?

Seriously. Hewlett Packard and Intel were born here, so was Apple. Does a day go by now where we don’t use either Google or Facebook? I use both more than I use my bike or my microwave.

I jump on the Caltrain with a bunch of Giants fans and on our hour long journey to San Francisco I toss the whole thing over in mind. I’ve been on Stanford campus, in the design school and tech transfer office; visited the hottest incubators like 500 Startups and Plug and Play Tech Centre; met with serial entrepreneurs and first-timers; and I’ve listened to the money men: Silicon Valley Bank and the various venture capital firms and angel investors that help make the whole place tick.

All I want to know is, what’s the secret and how do I get it back to Ireland?

I’m hoping the expats out here can help me and throughout the course of my week I make it my business to meet with Irish folk involved in every space, every corner of this tech-mecca: the clean tech pioneer, the guy who finished his leaving cert and got on a plane two days later to go set up a company in The Valley, the grad student who wants to take on and take down Facebook, the professor who’s helping students re-invent the way we interact with the world and the financial patriot helping fellow Irish entrepreneurs.

But they all tell me the same thing. That what I’m looking for cannot be bottled and checked on to a plane. It’s an attitude, an atmosphere. It’s cultural, historic even – one traces it back to the 1800s and the kinds of people who left their comfy homes and clean cities in the east to strike out here on their own in the unknown. The first American innovators.

It’s a nice, romantic way to look at the world but what it essentially reveals is the truth that Silicon Valley is unique, the perfect ecosystem. And perfection by its very nature cannot be copied: there can be no second silicon city.

And yet that doesn’t mean that we can’t create something good ourselves in Ireland, something different, something special (in the European context at least).

I think about this some more as I stroll from the train station back to my friend’s apartment, past the new building where Twitter is about to relocate. Another major outfit coming to Dublin to set up an international HQ.

Ireland is already special for the big established players coming in to Europe because of our low corporation tax rate, amongst other things. But establishment isn’t innovation, and one, albeit big, element does not a healthy ecosystem make. The kind of FDI we need to attract if we’re to be truly special – an investment of new capital, new people, new ideas: a new culture of enterprise – doesn’t care about corporation tax rates (not for the first couple of years anyhow).

A key question for me as a policy maker, and hence this trip is: what can the government do to attract and foster this new culture? It’s a question I ask cautiously though as sometimes it can be more a case of what shouldn’t the government do or how can government get out of the way. I mean imagine if some suited middle-aged official was in charge of Paddy Cosgrave’s incredibly successful websummit and founders series? It just wouldn’t work.   

One of the first things you learn when you step in to such an environment is that it can’t be created or fed by politicians or bureaucrats. As one person in Stanford said to me, “enterprise requires chaos”. And the genuine cultural element, the fail to succeed mentality that we don’t seem to have here, can’t be impregnated in our collective psyche with a law.

But politics, and politicians, can facilitate. And, of course, we’re not starting from scratch. There’s already a lot going on. But we need to do more to help properly seed an entrepreneurial, start-up environment, be it in Dublin, Galway, Cork or Kerry. And as I get chatting with our Irish abroad, so keen to give something back, if only an idea, I get to hear more.

Some are small changes, while others are more radical. Some can be initiated quite easily while others are longer term goals. But each is compelling and taken together could actually be the difference.

Telling someone that it’s ok to fail and having them believe it and go for it is one thing. But making it impossible for them to start back up again if they do, through regressive and punitive bankruptcy laws, undermines any possibility of a virtuous cycle through failure. We know this. And the government is moving on this. But not far enough in my opinion.

At the Dublin websummit in June a successful foreign entrepreneur was asked: how do you decide where to locate your company? His simple answer, “I go where the developers are”. Start-up internet companies need developers and we don’t have nearly enough. But imagine if we told young aspiring founders from abroad that we would pay 20-25% of their developers’ wages. They would flock here overnight and everyone else would come with them: more developers, designers, investors.  Quebec is doing just that at the moment in an attempt to become the gaming capital of the world and they’re flocking there in droves (86 new companies since the initiative started).  

 It might sound a tad radical and sure we don’t have the money to do this. But what if instead we said we wouldn’t charge them any income tax for the first year? Or PRSI? Hey, it’s just an idea, take it for a walk, think of something better.

 If we’re going to really become a creative, innovative place to work and live then we need to start thinking a bit more creatively in our policies too. And we can’t be afraid of failure. Some ideas will fail, it’s essential in fact that they do. But one thing is certain: if we keep just talking and hoping and writing reports on how to achieve the perfect start-up ecosystem for Dublin or wherever then we guarantee ourselves neither failure nor success. We won’t be special, we’ll be irrelevant. Forget perfection. It’s time to get doing.

A Week in Politics..

Every day, every week of a TD’s life is different. The weekday-weekend distinction is almost meaningless. It’s the sitting day-non sitting day distinction that gives us some structure.

How a TD fills their day when the Dáil is not sitting is up to them. There will always be some community event(s) on the weekend that it’s important to support. There will be phonecalls that is certain. And depending on what’s just happened or what’s to come there is invariably a few hours at least of paperwork. If you can fit this all in to one of those two days, great, day off. But you’re never really off.

As for non-sitting weekdays, generally speaking I use Monday to deal with constituency issues, plan the week ahead, and do some reading/writing. At the moment we’re also canvassing for Gay Mitchell in the evenings. Fridays are similar, though I will try and focus more on those things that require solid blocks of concentration (a new Bill for example). It’s also a good time to have meetings that require a bit more time.

But when the Dáil is sitting it’s always busy, hectic in fact, and this week was no different and I’ve tried to capture that below. What I haven’t included is those times when I have been summoned by bell to vote in the chamber, or all those 5-10 minute slots where my staff manage to grab me to make a phonecall, sign correspondence or deal with an email.

Tuesday

9am – meeting in Buswell’s Hotel to discuss an upcoming piece of legislation.

10am – cycle to Ranelagh office to interview potential new interns.

11.30am – breakfast in Hobarts and a quick read of the paper.

12.15pm – office to deal with some paper work.

1pm – cycle in to Dáil.

1.30pm – photocall with Gay Mitchell as he hands in nomination papers at Custom’s House.

2.15pm (and late) – meeting re LUAS interconnector in LH2000.

2.30pm – Dáil commences. I attend at 3.15pm for Leader’s Questions and the Order of Business. On the conclusion of Order of Business I meet with a couple of Ministers re various issues.

5pm – office for a bit of everything: correspondence, reading, constituency work.

6pm – dinner in canteen.

6.45pm – Diaspora Matters event in Shelbourne Hotel.

8.30pm – taxi out to O’Connells, Donnybrook for a local food event.

10pm – homeward bound and a chance to (finally) make some phonecalls.

Wednesday

8.30am – business breakfast in Dublin Chamber of Commerce.

10am – Dáil Chamber

10.30am – preparation for Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

12.30pm – cycle to Berkley Court to meet the new Chinese Ambassador at a reception.

1.15pm – return to Dáil. Correspondence and some reading and some food at my desk.

2.45pm – meeting with C&AG ahead of PAC tomorrow. HSE are coming in and I am second questioner.

4.30pm – meeting with Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

5.30pm – Parliamentary Party meeting.

7pm – Presentation on cigarette smuggling.

7.45pm – More PAC reading and a sandwich.

9.15pm – leave Dáil to meet a friend.

Thursday

8.30 – Arrive Dáil office. Prepare some work for later in the afternoon, final preparations for PAC.

10am – PAC.

12pm – meeting re use of depleted uranium shells in warfare.

12.30pm – Join Gay Mitchell campaign in Stephen’s Green. We’re meeting volunteer groups.

2pm – back to Dáil, but I miss meeting of Dublin TDs.

2.15pm – with Minister to discuss a constituency case.

2.45pm – Dáil chamber to discuss Tourism Bill – 5 minutes (I had put my name down on Tuesday, had been thinking about it in the back of my mind since, and found ten minutes somewhere to scribble down my thoughts).

3pm – meeting in a café re upcoming piece of legislation and have lunch.

4pm – meeting to discuss upcoming Bill that I have been working on directly.

5pm – office to work on questionnaire from journalist and some follow up on a high tech thing I’m involved with.

6pm – cycle to Ranelagh office for presidential campaign canvass.

8.15pm – cycle home for dinner.

10pm – phonecalls.

Weekly Message from An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny

This week’s message comes to you from Warsaw, where I am attending the Eastern Partnership summit of heads of states and governments of EU countries and the Eastern Partnership countries. The aim of this initiative is to develop relations between the EU and its six neighbouring countries to the East, namely Ukraine, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and Belarus.

This summit is of particular significance to Ireland, as we will hold the Chairmanship in Office of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, in 2012 and will therefore be expected to play an active role in dealing with any conflict in which these countries might be involved. 

I also plan to use this Summit as an opportunity to discuss economic and trade matters with certain EU partners and to promote Ireland as a place in which to do business, which I have done at every opportunity to date and will continue to do.  I will return to Dublin this evening in time to attend the St. Paul’s College Raheny’s Rugby Captains’ Dinner in Clontarf Castle.

I welcome the fact that there was more good news this week in terms of jobs announcements. On Monday, I was in Galway for the announcement of 200 new jobs at EA Games, Galway. EA is one of the world’s leading interactive games companies and this will further enhance Ireland’s position at the hub of the digital media sector.
These 200 new jobs will be in the company’s new European customer support centre and will bring the total workforce there to almost 400.

The Programme for Government highlights the digital game industry as a particular priority area for growth and the increased presence here of a company of EA’s status is very encouraging indeed. While in Galway, I also took the opportunity to meet with James Browne, President of NUIG.

Yesterday morning, I was delighted to officially open the new Dogpatch Lab in Dublin. Dogpatch already have labs in the US, but this is, significantly, the first of its kind in Europe, and the fact that they have chosen Dublin speaks volumes. The concept of these labs is to bring together a community of likeminded entrepreneurs who in turn share and pass on useful information and points of contact amongst them.

I believe that the presence of a company such as Dogpatch in our capital will add further to our international reputation as a centre for innovation and securing the first European Lab for Dublin is undoubtedly a significant vote of confidence in Ireland.

Ireland secured another first this week when online microblogging service Twitter announced that it has chosen Dublin to be the site of its new European HQ. Twitter is now set to join fellow technological giants Google and Facebook who already have bases in the capital. Also this week, accountancy firm Price Waterhouse Cooper announced the creation almost 300 new jobs, 250 of which will come from the company’s graduate recruitment programme.

I joined Fine Gael presidential candidate Gay Mitchell at the Custom House on Tuesday where he was delivering his nomination papers. Nominations have now closed for the presidential election, which will take place on October 27th. Gay brings excellent credentials to this campaign and it is my expectation that he will ably display these credentials in the coming weeks.

I have spoken in the past of the need to utilise the skills and talents of our Diaspora all over the world and on Tuesday night, I joined Kingsley Aikens of Diaspora Matters and over 400 business and industry representatives in the Shelbourne Hotel to launch the Global Diaspora Strategies Toolkit. The Toolkit is intended to collate, analyse and learn from the experience of Diaspora organisations around the world, and to serve as a guide for all who are interested in developing programmes in this area.

I remain convinced that the Irish Diaspora has a pivotal role to play in Ireland’s economic recovery, and now there is an ever increasing number of means available to us to connect with that Diaspora, particularly through new media and technologies. These people are simply too talented and too experienced for their skills to be neglected.

Strengthening ties with our Diaspora and restoring Ireland’s international reputation abroad will also be on the agenda next weekend when the Global Irish Economic Forum takes place Dublin Castle. The Forum will also focus on engaging fully with the Irish Diaspora in order to best develop Ireland’s global business and trade relations. I am also delighted that President Bill Clinton has accepted my invitation to attend the forum. This event will contribute to our objective of demonstrating that, by 2016, Ireland can be the best small country in the world in which to do business.  

It is my belief that these recent announcements by such prestigious international companies as EA, Twitter and Price Waterhouse Cooper are indicative of an increasing confidence in Ireland as a productive place in which to do business. Of course, the battle has not yet been won, as highlighted by the threat of job losses this week in Athlone, but we do have much to be optimistic about. And if we can effectively harness the extensive talents and skills of our Diaspora all over the world we will have even more to be hopeful for. Kind regards

Yours sincerely

Enda Kenny TD
Taoiseach

Google announces new 75m euro investment in energy-efficient, air-cooled data centre in Dublin

New project to provide more than 200 jobs for local and national construction firms, and up to 30 full-time and contractor jobs once operational.

30^th September 2011
Mr Richard Bruton, TD, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, today announced that Google has acquired 11 acres of land and an existing building on Dublin’s Profile Park and will soon begin construction work on a highly energy-efficient data centre.  A data centre is a specialised building full of computers that run online services such as the Google search engine, Gmail and Google Maps.

Once complete, the facility will rank amongst the most energy-efficient data centres in the world. Google will use advanced air-cooling technology that has been tested and perfected at Google’s existing rented datacenter facility in Dublin. This technology takes advantage of Ireland’s naturally cool climate and uses outside air to cool computers instead of costly and energy-hungry air-conditioning units.

Google will invest up to 75 million Euros in the acquisition, build and fit out of its new facility, and will provide work for over 200 people from local and national firms at the peak of the construction phase. The contractors have already been selected after taking part in a competitive bid process.

Once operational, the centre will employ up to 30 people in a variety of full-time and contractor roles, including computer technicians, electrical and mechanical engineers, and catering and security staff. The new data centre will be in addition to Google’s existing rented datacenter facility in Dublin, which will continue to operate. Google already employs over 2,000 people in Dublin, and last year also bought three major office buildings in central Dublin, including Dublin’s tallest commercial office building, Montevetro.

Minister Bruton said: “As I have said repeatedly, the global cloud computing industry offers Ireland a massive opportunity for jobs and economic growth. I am determined that government will act decisively to seize that opportunity, and that is why I have established a cross-government implementation group to ensure that prompt action occurs.”

He continued: “The decision by Google, one of the most important multinational companies in Ireland, to locate a state-of-the-art data centre in Dublin is an endorsement of our policies in this area, and a sign of what is possible if we continue our focus”.

“We’re very happy to continue investing in Ireland and to build out our presence here even further,” said John Herlihy, head of Google Ireland. “The new data centre will be one of the most energy-efficient in Google’s global fleet. This investment further strengthens our presence here, and I’d like to thank IDA Ireland for the assistance they gave us in selecting this site.”

3.1million in extra funding for small businesses to create 400 jobs – Perry

Need for additional funding shows start-up spirit alive and well in Ireland.

Minister for Small Business, John Perry TD, yesterday, Wednesday 28^th September, announced the provision of an additional €3.1million to the County and City Enterprise Boards directly to fund job creation projects in the remaining months of 2011. The additional funding is provided from savings elsewhere in the Minister’s Department, and is provided in response to specific requests from CEBs. The funding is additional to the €15million already provided to CEBs in 2011.

The Minister made the announcement to the Small Business Advisory Forum, which he chaired this morning.

Making the announcement, Minister Perry said:

“If we are to get out of this crisis, it is crucial that we strive in every way possible to encourage the start-up and expanding businesses that will create the jobs of the future. The County and City Enterprise Boards around the country have a key role to play in providing much-needed capital for these businesses. This year a number of CEBs have indicated that they would not have sufficient funding to respond to the needs of start-ups in their area, and so the Department sought to make savings in other areas to provide funding for these vital businesses.

“I am delighted to announce as a result that we will be providing an additional €3.1million for start-up and expanding businesses. This funding will go to the 28 CEBs which are experiencing additional demand for their services, and will directly fund projects that will create over 400 jobs around the country.

“It is very encouraging that 28 CEBs has sufficient demand from projects in their area to justify these requests, and this shows that the start-up spirit is alive and well in Ireland. The provision of this additional funding to support businesses is further evidence of the Government’s commitment to the small business sector, and ensures that resources are targeted at those CEBs where demand is greatest”.

Each CEB has also examined the funding it currently has available and whether it already has sufficient money to cover the projects coming to them seeking funding over the rest of the year.  Arising from this, 7 Boards concluded that they had sufficient funds available to them in 2011.

Topical Issue Debate – International Day of Peace and Nuclear Disarmament

Eoghan Murphy TD, statement made during ‘Topical Issues’ in Dáil Eireann, 22^nd September 2011, Answered by Minister for European Affairs, Lucinda Creighton TD.

Deputy Eoghan Murphy:

As the Minister of State Deputy Creighton will be aware, yesterday, 21 September was the international day of peace, a day that has been recognised by the UN for the past 29 years. It was also the first day of the opening of the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly, where leaders from around the world have come together to discuss their plans for progressing peace and human security for the coming year.

Our first endeavours in the United Nations in the 1950s were always in pursuit of peace, be it in sending peacekeepers around the world, as we have done for many decades and continue to do, or in the control of nuclear weapons and nuclear disarmament generally. Indeed, the first Minister sent to the United Nations in the 1950s, Mr. Frank Aiken, pursued a treaty on the non-dissemination of nuclear nations. In 1961, the Irish resolution adopted by the UN took a hold of that vision and in 1965 was converted into the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, NPT. We have continued to work in the pursuit of arms control and disarmament since then and, most recently, at the review conference for the NPT in 2010, we were successful in achieving some significant progress in the pursuit of a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East. We will continue to work towards these endeavours. We have also worked very successfully in trying to abolish landmines and cluster munitions. In 2008, a declaration was signed in Dublin that brought into effect the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Peace day is about more than one day, however. We must continue with these efforts on a constant basis until we have achieved a world that is free from the threat of nuclear weapons and other such threats. Tomorrow in New York, on the margins of the General Assembly, there will be a conference on facilitating the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, also known as the Article 14 conference. This is a treaty that was opened for signature 15 years ago, in 1996, yet it still has not come into force. It is the next most important step in achieving a world free of nuclear weapons and the next most important piece of architecture in the nuclear non-proliferation regime. Yet it is still not in force.

There are nine countries involved that have held out from signing and ratifying the treaty. It is imperative that Ireland, given its position and its history of involvement in this area, pursues this goal, of a comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty, and that it gives dedicated effort to achieving finally the entry into force of that treaty sooner rather than later. This was the last major WMD arms control treaty to be negotiated by the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva a conference which has been in stalemate for the past 12 years, which is a disgrace. And we must also make efforts in this regard.

The Tánaiste is at the UN General Assembly at present. I wish him well in his endeavours and in the negotiations and bilateral meetings he will hold.

[Minister Creighton responds]

Deputy Eoghan Murphy:

I thank the Minister of State. It is very encouraging to hear that the Government is preparing for the 2015 NPT review conference process. It is particularly encouraging that the Middle East review will be going ahead in 2012, and I wish everyone the very best in that regard because it is very important to what we are trying to achieve in that region as well as in the wider world in regard to nuclear weapons disarmament.

With regard to the measures being pursued at present in relation to conventional weapons, it is commendable that we have a commitment in this area, both through the UN system and also through the NGO system. I wish the Government the very best on both these tracks.

The Tánaiste will become chairman of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe next year. I am the head of the Oireachtas delegation to the parliamentary assembly for the OSCE and I offer him and his Department all my support in everything he hopes to achieve next year. The delegation will be interested in meeting the Minister to hear more about his plans while chairman of that organisation and I look forward to hearing from him in that regard.

[Minister Creighton responds]

To read this debate in full, please click on the following link:

http://debates.oireachtas.ie/dail/2011/09/22/00010.asp