ANALYSIS:Dual-use goods, which can have a military application, may be falling into wrong hands, writes JAMIE SMYTH
THE GLOBAL recession is causing severe difficulties for many Irish-based export firms but some companies selling components used in the military or defence field are enjoying a boom in overseas trade.
The value of export licences granted by the Government for the export of dual-use goods – components, software or chemicals that have a military as well as a commercial use – tripled in 2009 to €6.74 billion.
The value of military licences grew almost €2 million to €2.5 million.
The defence sector is booming. Worldwide military expenditures have risen 45 per cent in the past decade reaching $1.46 trillion in 2008 due to the continuing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Today’s release of the value of dual-use and military exports in 2008/9 stretches the credibility of the Government’s assertion that it does not have “an involvement with the global arms industry”.
The nature of modern warfare means that a range of software, chemicals and mechanical components are required to make the sophisticated weaponry and vehicles used on the battlefield.
Many indigenous Irish companies and US multinationals based in this country are supplying these products to the global marketplace.
Shane O’Neill, chief executive of Timoney Technologies – one of the Irish firms that exports technology under military licences – is right to focus on the positive impact this has on job creation.
Even the NGO Amnesty International says it has nothing against the global arms industry per se.
But it has valid concerns about the lack of transparency regarding Irish exports of dual-use goods.
The Control of Exports Act was passed into law in 2008 to try to close loopholes in the law, which prompted concerns that arms brokers operated in the Republic.
But two years on a key part of the Act – the publication of an annual report providing details on the value and destination of dual-use and military exports – has still not been published.
Amnesty International claims the Government has repeatedly said it would publish the first report for 2008 without delivering on its promise.
There are also concerns about loopholes in the 2008 Act, which allows companies to use EU-wide licences to export dual-use products to Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Norway Switzerland and the US without an export licence.
These components can then be exported on to other countries – some of which NGOs may have expressed human rights concerns about – without the knowledge or say so of the Irish authorities.