andMr. McQuillan asked the Minister for External Affairs whether, in view of the Pope's declaration that justice, right reason and humanity urgently demand that nuclear weapons should be banned, the Government will give a lead to the other nations of the world by declaring that under no circumstances would the Republic of Ireland permit her territory to be used as territorial or maintenance bases from which it would be possible to deploy for action nuclear warheads.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Nuclear Weapons.
37.
I have read the article in The Observer of 14th April, 1963, in which the words referred to in the question appeared. They occurred in the middle of a sentence given in English from the Encyclical Pacem in Terris issued by His Holiness Pope John XXIII on 11th instant.
I have placed the authoritative Latin Text of the Encyclical in the Library. So far no official translation has reached us.
It will be noted from a study of the Encyclical that His Holiness not only counsels that the proliferation and use of nuclear weapons should be interdicted but that international agreements should be negotiated for the progressive and balanced reduction of all armaments under effective control. This is the policy of the Government.
For the reasons I gave in the Dáil on 28th March, 1962, and on other occasions, the answer to the Deputies' question is in the negative.
Is it a fact that we have been asked to subscribe with other neutral nations to an agreement——
The Deputy will have to speak up as I cannot hear him.
Is it a fact that we have been asked with other neutral nations to subscribe to an agreement that we would not at any time allow our territory to be used for the deployment of these weapons and that we have refused to be party to such an agreement?
We were asked by the Acting-Secretary General of the United Nations the conditions under which countries not possessing nuclear weapons would be willing to enter into undertakings to refrain from manufacturing or otherwise acquiring such weapons, and secondly, the conditions under which they would refuse to receive in the future nuclear weapons on their territory on behalf of any other country. On 28th March, 1962 I replied at length to questions put in the Dáil and I replied to that enquiry. I concluded by saying:
I am more than ever convinced that proposals for de-nuclearising certain areas if they are to be successful must form part of an agreement accepted by a group of States and backed by the UN and the major Powers which will not only eliminate nuclear weapons but will also limit all weapons of mass destruction, exclude foreign troops and provide for the peaceful settlement of disputes, and the enforcement of the rule of law in the area concerned.
That remains our attitude on the matter.
Am I to take it then, in spite of the Pope's clear condemnation of the use of nuclear weapons, that there are circumstances in which our Government would permit the use of bases of one kind or another for the deployment of such weapons?
I think the Pope should be left out of cheap Irish——
I think the answer we gave the Secretary General was a sensible answer and a very practical one. I concluded my answer on 28th March, 1962, by saying:
Now that both the United States and the USSR have incorporated the prevention of the further spread of nuclear weapons in their disarmament proposals we should, I believe, concentrate our efforts in promoting an international agreement on the matter. Such an agreement would reduce world tension and open the way for negotiations to eliminate nuclear and all other weapons of mass destruction area by area throughout the world.
The Minister for Agriculture, Question No. 38.
If the Deputy wants to hold the Catholic religion up to ridicule he is in the wrong place.
The Minister's answer is beside the point. Did he in fact refuse the Acting-Secretary General's request that Ireland would not be a party to the spread of nuclear weapons?
There was no such request from the Secretary General.