Gardaí in Galway are considering whether to investigate a complaint about the activities of the computer multinational, Hewlett- Packard (HP), amid claims that the company's subsidiary is providing software for French and US nuclear weapons programmes.
The complaint was lodged by Mr Eoin Dubsky with the support of the Irish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment has already been in contact with the company in relation to claims that HP's Compaq subsidiary is in breach of export laws.
The Industrial Development Authority (IDA) said it would withdraw grant aid to the firm if it was in breach of business rules, while making it clear that it had no problem in principle with giving support to companies involved in manufacturing for military use.
Compaq was taken over by HP last May and has received over €8 million in State aid to date, with over €1 million of this destined for the Galway base.
A Department spokesman said it had been informed verbally that the product at the centre of controversy was of general application. The company argues that the software has a "whole variety of uses" in high-capacity computing - such as weather forecasting - and does not require an export licence. In a separate statement, HP said its subsidiary operation was "assisting the Department of Enterprise fully with any queries they have".
However, the Galway Alliance Against War group says it has good reason to believe the software is for use by the French and US nuclear weapons programmes, and this is in contravention of a resolution passed by Galway Corporation in the 1980s making the city a nuclear-free zone.
