I have circulated a long version of my speech as Members may wish to study it in detail. This is a non-contentious Bill that gives effect to the Chemical Weapons Convention which is the result of 24 years of painstaking negotiations. It provides a framework for monitoring chemical industries and for the prevention and destruction of existing chemical weapons. It also ensures that these weapons of appalling destruction are not manufactured in our manufacturing plants and that the means of manufacture do not find their way to unsavoury regimes or to terrorist groups. Unlike other measures in the arms limitation field, the Bill provides for the destruction of all chemical weapons and chemical weapon production facilities.
The Bill also provides for an elaborate system of verification and inspection which will be undertaken by an independent international organisation to ensure compliance by the ratifying states. Ireland ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention in June 1996. The purpose of the Bill is to create the structures and powers necessary for the State to meet its obligations under the convention. The convention requires that a national authority be established in each ratifying state and the National Authority for Occupational Safety and Health Authority will be the body in Ireland. In the course of its normal inspections of chemical facilities it will carry out the inspections required to ensure that controlled substances are properly monitored and that these premises are not being used for the manufacture of chemical weapons. The authority has all the necessary expertise and is familiar with the chemical industry from its mainstream work.
The enforcement powers provided in the Bill are modelled on similar provisions in existing legislation, notably the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, 1989. Under the Chemical Weapons Convention declarations will be required from the State and the chemical industry. The State will declare that it processes no chemical weapons and has no chemical weapon production facilities. The Schedules to the Bill deal with chemicals that could be used to form chemical weapons, some of which have legitimate peace time uses. There are procedures for monitoring and controlling the use of these chemicals and which ensure they are not used in the manufacture of chemical weapons at home or that they are not exported to unsavoury or unsuitable organisations abroad.
The Bill contains strict provisions on confidentiality concerning information given to the national authority for transmission to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in the Hague which will monitor compliance — in other words, commercially sensitive information will not be disclosed if chemical companies provide information under the Bill on the stocks of chemicals they hold. It is very much in the interests of the chemical industry that Ireland ratifies this convention as trade in certain chemicals with non-ratifying countries is restricted under the convention.
When the Bill was being prepared there were extensive consultations with industry interests which have expressed themselves satisfied with its provisions and are anxious that we pass this legislation with due speed so that we can continue to trade on the basis that we have a chemical industry of which we can be proud, which has nothing to hide and which is not involved directly or indirectly in the production of these appalling weapons.
To date nearly 90 states have ratified the treaty, including all EU member states and the US. We want all UN member states to sign up to the treaty. In Israel a case is taking place involving somebody who is alleged to have supplied the makings of a mustard gas factory to Iran. It is important from a humanitarian point of view that we have proper control over these potentially appalling weapons internationally. This is an important humanitarian measure which I commend to the House.