Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the ambassador for his presentation. I had an opportunity recently to meet him to be briefed on different issues.

Last week, in response to a parliamentary question, the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade indicated there has been progress in the nuclear issue and Iran is engaging fully in resolving it. Is it hoped the deadline for agreement by 20 July will be met? To my knowledge, the agreements reached in November last have been honoured.

In 2013, Ireland exported €57 million of products to Iran with €1 million of imports coming into this country from Iran. There is the potential for a substantial increase in trade. One statistic that stood out was that, prior to the imposition of sanctions, the EU was Iran’s major trading partner with trade worth €28 billion. This is now down to €6 billion while trade with China has grown dramatically and is projected to grow substantially over the next several years.

I raised the issue of human rights and the treatment of minority groups in Iran with the ambassador’s predecessor at this committee before. The Baha'i community in Ireland has brought to my attention serious issues concerning the treatment of some of its members in Iran. There is a need for the human rights dialogue between the EU and Iran to resume. It is an issue that the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade raised with his Iranian counterpart some time ago. I am also concerned, to put it mildly, about the report by the Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre that 624 people were executed in Iran in 2013. The number officially announced by the Iranian Government was 334. There should be no executions whatsoever. The number of those executed in 2014 to date is estimated at 250 people. None of us has words to describe that type of conduct. No one has the right to take life. It is an issue that we need to have the full facts on and address.