As the Deputy will no doubt be aware the Council of Europe Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism was opened for signature in 1977 and was ratified, without reservation, by Ireland in 1987.
The Convention set out to list certain types of offences which, of their nature, were regarded as offences which should not, for the purposes of extradition, be regarded as political offences or offences connected with political offences. In the view of the Committee of Minister of the Council of Europe expressed in 1991 and repeated earlier this year the main value of the Convention lies in principle not in the enumeration of the kind of offences but rather in the political message which is conveyed by the Convention.
I share the views of the Committee of Ministers in so far as this expression of principle is concerned and, while the wording of the Convention might be amended to include reference to nonautomatic weapons or to make more explicit references to possession of weapons or explosives, I also agree with the Committee of Ministers that, at present, there is no realistic prospect of securing agreement to amend the Convention in this regard.