FIANNA Fail has introduced a private member's Bill calling for the immediate banning of landmines in Ireland.
The Bill, in the name of the party's foreign affairs spokesman, Mr Ray Burke, says that the Minister for Foreign Affairs "shall prohibit the production, procurement, transfer, sale, repair, stockpiling, import and use of anti personnel landmines in the State".
Calling for all party support, Mr Burke said "Ireland's influence on world affairs has been hugely disproportionate to its size". And it was not an empty gesture for Ireland, which has no landmines, to ban them.
"An Irish ban will generate international pressure. A ban will put pressure on our EU and UN partners. A ban would help to bring the issue to the forefront of international debate.
"For example, whilst Ireland has had no involvement with atomic weaponry, few can forget the commitment and zeal of the Fianna Fail Minister for Foreign Affairs, Frank Aiken, in the promotion of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty."
Mr Burke said Ireland must use its respected international position, especially in view of its forthcoming EU presidency, "to demonstrate the path which should be followed by world governments" in ridding the planet of this "abhorrent weapon".
Welcoming the Bill, Pax Christi, the Catholic peace organisation which has been in the forefront of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, noted that in Belgium, the first country to legislate a unilateral ban, the first move had been a bill introduced by an opposition party. Since then, Austria, Canada, the Philippines and Switzerland have also unilaterally renounced the use of mines.
The general secretary of Pax Christi Ireland, Mr Tony D'Costa, said the magnitude of the humanitarian tragedy caused by mines - with 500 people being killed and mutilated by them every week - "requires that every nation have the moral courage to explore and seize every opportunity to promote a total international ban."
A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said yesterday that the Fianna Fail Bill was "a matter of consideration" for the Government.