Vol. 520 No. 2
76 Mr. Farrelly asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he supports the proposal for European controls on licensed production agreements and the control of arms brokers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15630/00]
In reply to questions on the EU code of conduct on arms exports in the House on 11 May I stated:
Working to promote and support international efforts to ensure that appropriate safeguards and restraints apply to the sale and transfer, and that the destabilising accumulation of arms is brought to an end is a key priority of Irish foreign policy. To that end we are not only actively engaged in the EU context, but also at the United Nations or wherever like-minded countries which share this goal are at work.
This continues to be our position.
Since then work has commenced at Ireland's initiative to achieve fuller and more effective control of arms exports and material from EU member states and to draw up regulations to control arms brokerage. While I am not in a position to state when this work will be completed, I can assure the Deputy that we will continue to exercise every effort to achieve in full the objectives of the of the EU code of conduct at an early date as well as the overall objectives which I have described above.
