Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will start with Deputy Byrne's question on the way in which OSCE election monitoring is done. There has been a long-established OSCE practice in regard to election monitoring. One of the difficulties is that there is an expectation and an clamour immediately following elections for the report on what the election monitors concluded. The election takes place and the world's press is always looking for the outcome of the monitoring and whether the elections are free, fair and so on. That demand for a response is why the interim report is made. I have heard what the Deputy said about the impact on people who are on the ground doing the monitoring and who have to complete their work. We will have that suggestion looked at.

In regard to Gaza, the Palestinian-Israeli situation and the Middle East peace process, Deputy Durkan and Senator Walsh rightly raised the window of opportunity there is now following the United States presidential election and the situation where the European Union agreed in May to a common position on settlements. We need to be open to what could happen if the European Union and the United States - of course, we have the quartet structure in place and it does not require setting in place any new structure - could co-operate and get real movement in getting a long-term permanent settlement of the conflict in the Middle East. That is something we all must be open to. A real prospect of that would change things very significantly.

On Deputy Nash's question about UNRWA, I indicated I was looking at the provision of additional resources for UNRWA but I am not in a position today to make an announcement on that. I will communicate the announcement to the committee Chairman and the Deputy when it is made.

On the killing of the Egyptian soldiers raised by Deputy Byrne, that incident took place a number of months ago and was most likely carried out by one of the Jihadist or Salafist groups based in Gaza. I condemn such violence. It does not serve the Palestinian cause or the people of Gaza in any way. Unfortunately, such extremism poses a very real threat to the efforts being made to advance Palestinian reconciliation.

In regard to the situation in the DRC, this country has had a very troubled history. It has had long periods of authoritarian dictatorships and vicious civil war for most of its post-colonial existence. The elections held in 2006, with UN organisational assistance and significant EU financial support, were the first democratic elections to happen in the DRC for almost half a century and signified a major step on the road towards genuine democratic reform in that country. The process was by no means perfect and many problems were identified but it allowed for the establishment of an elected legitimate government.

Further presidential and legislative elections were organised in November 2011. The fact that these were arranged largely without external support represents another step forward on the path to democracy. The European Union sent an observer mission and Irish observers were part of that. We were not satisfied with some aspects of the preparation of the electoral process and we were very concerned about the violence that happened before, during and after polling.

With regard to UN involvement in the DRC, following the signing of the Lusaka ceasefire agreement in July 1999 between the DRC and five regional states, the Security Council established the United Nations Organisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo - MONUC - through Resolution 1279. Initially it was to plan for the observation of the ceasefire and the disengagement of forces and to maintain liaison with all parties up to the ceasefire agreement. Later, in a series of resolutions, the Council expanded the mandate of MONUC to the supervision of the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and assigned multiple related tasks to it. The United Nations has also been to the fore in the efforts to restore democracy and improve governance.

The various human rights abuses in the DRC are well documented and they are deeply disturbing. Ireland is in touch with other Governments and donors, particularly on the issue of violence against women. This is a priority for us; it is one of the issues we flagged during our candidacy for the Human Rights Council and the committee can be assured that we will raise this at the HRC in Geneva.

The European Union is playing an active role in supporting efforts to bring about an end to the conflicts in the DRC and to support progress towards peace, stability and economic and social development. The Commission's DRC country strategy paper for the period 2008-13 currently amounts to €584 million under the tenth European Development Fund. Within this framework, the Commission's objective is to support the reconstruction of the DRC while pursuing stabilisation efforts in some regions of the country.

At a bilateral level, we avail of every opportunity to make our views known directly to DRC representatives. Earlier this week, for example, the DRC Minister for the Environment was in Dublin for talks with the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government. Officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade were involved in that visit and had the opportunity to discuss issues of mutual interest with the DRC officials, including the political, security and humanitarian situation in the country.