Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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96. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade when the optional protocol of the ICESCR will be ratified. [27878/14]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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The Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights opened for signature by UN Member States in New York in September 2009. To date, 45 states have signed the Optional Protocol. This includes 11 of the 28 European Union Member States. 15 states have ratified the Optional Protocol: Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cap Verde, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, Gabon, Mongolia, Montenegro, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, and Uruguay. The Optional Protocol entered into force on 5 May 2013, three months after the deposit with the United Nations Secretary-General of the tenth instrument of ratification or accession.Ireland signed the Optional Protocol on 23 March 2012. Ratification of the Optional Protocol is a separate step, which will be preceded by a thorough screening of the obligations to be assumed. This will require extensive consultation with all Departments involved and consideration by the Government in due course.