Arms dealing - Knowledge is a moral duty

In THE past in this country we have often been critical of merchants of death, but we could hardly have ever envisaged that we would become a big arms dealer on the international stage.

Preliminary figures show the Government officially admitted to granting €33.3 million in military export licences last year, but “dual use” technology, which can be put to either civilian or weapons use, came to close to €2.1 billion in foreign sales.

Over the past 10 years, official military exports in the arms trade stand at €370m, but our “dual use” trade over the decade stands at a staggering €31bn.

Amnesty International estimates that between 40% and 50% of the “dual use” licences went to arms components. This is part of our Celtic Tiger economy.

The argument may be made that if we do not supply the material without question, somebody else will gladly take the business. Surely we should insist on moral standards in relation to such trade, and insist on knowing the uses to which such technology is being devoted?