Legislation urged to halt contribution to arms trade

OUR secretive trade in manufactured or assembled goods that can be used for military purposes may be worth more than €4 billion a year.

As in other countries, no official trade data on production of such exports exist here because military goods involve components rather than finished goods.

Independent consultants who probed our export licensing system on behalf of Forfás are now urging legislation to be introduced to plug “gaps” in the existing controls.