Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have two or three specific points to make in respect of the Congo and Gaza. I warmly welcome the Tánaiste's comments on additional resources being made available to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, the director general of which members met recently.

Deputy Durkan and I met informally with the chief field medical officer, Dr. Mohammad Maqadma, and I understand other members met him separately. He explained that there were resource issues in October. Clearly, those resource issues are much more acute now. Could the Tánaiste provide us with some information in terms of the quantum of resources we will be making available to UNRWA in light of the escalation?

In regard to the Congo, Margot Wallström is reported as having said that the Congo is the rape capital of the world. The Harvard humanitarian index highlighted a 17-fold increase in incidences of rape in the Congo. That was reported to us in our earlier session this afternoon and some very compelling cases were recounted to us by those who were in the DRC. Given that the UN mandate involves protecting civilians and providing them with security, is the Tánaiste of the view that the UN mandate needs to be reviewed or remodelled and enhanced to take account of those sorts of circumstances which are completely intolerable and entirely unacceptable? Will Ireland, in the context of its membership of the UN Human Rights Council, raise this as an issue and put it on the agenda in the context of our work on the human rights council?