Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The issue of co-operation and reconciliation in Northern Ireland and throughout the island has been one of the main functions of my Department for some time and we work on it at a number of levels. There is North-South co-operation, the work of the North-South Ministerial Council and work I do in conjunction with both the First Minister and Deputy First Minister in Northern Ireland at a number of levels. First, there is the issue raised by a number of Deputies, notwithstanding the progress at political and institutional level in the North, about the continuing underlying sectarian difficulties in many communities. That is why we have the funds to promote co-operation and tackle sectarianism, which are important. European Union PEACE funding has also been provided. We have been in discussion with the UK Administration about this issue because there are differing views between Ireland and the UK, for example, on the composition of the EU budget to 2020. The UK wants to reduce the budget while Ireland wants to maintain it and there will be consequences in all of that for PEACE funding. That is something to which we are giving a high priority.

I have discussed the issue of prisoners and the case of Marian Price, which was mentioned by Deputy O'Sullivan, with the recently appointed Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and his predecessor. It has been discussed at official level and I have discussed it with the Northern Ireland Minister of Justice, David Ford, who has devolved responsibility for prisons. It is something about which we are concerned and we will keep it to the fore in our discussions with the UK. Following this meeting I will meet the shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, but I have discussed it in recent times with the Secretary of State.

Deputy O'Sullivan raised the issue of investment and so on. Our Africa strategy is based on ethical investment and absolute adherence to good taxation practices and national laws. Our participation in peacekeeping missions is on the basis of UN mandate. It does not require us to work closely with each member of the UN-mandated force. We usually work with partners such as the Nordic states. With regard to the behaviour of armies, we have been one of the promoters of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and we were one of the first countries to adopt a national action plan in that regard. Our mission and permanent representative at the UN is very much to the fore in the promotion of human rights issues at all times in UN discussions.

The budget for the OSCE was a once-off but that does not mean we do not have that money next year. The money was there because the OSCE chairmanship was happening in 2012 and it will not be repeated but, in 2013, we have the EU Presidency and we have to make that happen with our resources as well.