Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

There is enough material in those questions for another long speech, but I will try to be brief. I thank Deputies Smith and Crowe for their compliments regarding the hunger-nutrition-climate justice conference and they both asked what we will do to carry forward on that. This was a very different conference because we designed it so there would be participation by people from grassroots level in developing countries like Malawi and we could bring together smallholders and people working on farms - some 80% of which were headed by women - and we linked together the themes of climate justice, hunger and nutrition.

We can talk about these issues at international conferences which are based on expert reports and scientific research, but this conference was an opportunity to talk about these issues through the lens and eyes of people experiencing the issues directly in their daily lives and that was the strength of the conference. The responsibility Ireland has taken on as a country arising from the conference is that we will take the messages from that conference to the international community. I will take those messages next Monday to the Foreign Affairs Council. We are also working with the United Kingdom and a number of agencies to put together a nutrition summit in London.

In June we will take the issue there. We are involved in a meeting with the United States and with Concern in Washington which will feed into the G8 summit, due to take place in Fermanagh in June. We are also going to use what we learned at that conference to influence our approach to the review of the millennium development goals. A high-level event will take place at the United Nations General Assembly in September on that review. Ireland has responsibility for this at the moment and my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Joe Costello, is chairing the group of EU development ministers preparing for the review. This is highly significant because over 50% of all the development aid money in the world comes from the EU so its role in regard to development aid and how it is directed and the things that are addressed is very important. That is how we intend to continue that work.

Deputy Smith asked about the Foreign Affairs Council and trade. There is a trade formation of the Foreign Affairs Council, which is attended by the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Bruton, and separately, there is a development formation of the Foreign Affairs Council, which the Minister of State, Deputy Costello, attends. There is very close co-operation between the two in respect of trade issues as they affect developing countries.

In response to Deputy Smith's comments, when I was in Geneva recently I discussed with the head of the Red Cross some of the practical difficulties in getting aid through to the people who need it in Syria. We work with several NGOs, one of which is GOAL, whose current head is the former Minister, Barry Andrews. He was in Syria recently and I spoke with him after his visit. It is doing a lot of work in that regard and we talked about some of the difficulties faced by the organisation. I had the opportunity when I was in Turkey of discussing that issue with the foreign Minister and the people I met there. We continue to maintain discussions with Russia in respect of its approach to Syria. It is encouraging that President Putin has spoken recently about a willingness to suspend all arms sales to Syria, and bilaterally and through the European Union we are continuing to maintain dialogue with Russia on this issue.

On the Middle East peace process, there is once again a window of opportunity. The American elections are over and there is a new government in Israel. I have had three discussions with the American Secretary of State, John Kerry, about this and I am greatly encouraged by his willingness to make a renewed effort and initiative in the Middle East peace process. It is important to say that we do not want to create false expectations in respect of what may happen. There have been many false dawns with regard to peace talks in the Middle East and some of those who have participated in them will say that for 20 years there have been talks happening or about to happen, yet nothing happens. The Secretary of State has a very realistic approach to what may or may not be achieved. The important point is that he and President Obama have been willing to engage in this. In Turkey last week I spoke with the Turkish foreign minister, Mr. Davutoğlu, who had also just met the Secretary of State to discuss his next visit to the Middle East. The European Union, through the High Representative, Catherine Ashton, has been very much involved in this. There is renewed effort on the part of the European Union, the United States, Turkey and other interested countries - the Quartet - to make progress in the Middle East. It is important that we are realistic about it and that, while the effort is made, false hopes are not created.

In respect of the EU-US trade deal, we have to get agreement on the negotiating mandate and we hope that will happen at the trade formation of the Foreign Affairs Council in June. Nobody is under any illusion about the difficulty of concluding an agreement when we get into the detail on a sectoral basis and the regulations on both sides of the Atlantic. There is a very important ambition here and we know there is huge potential to expand the economies of the European Union and the United States in respect of that trade deal. One of the issues I discussed in Turkey was the customs union agreement between Turkey and the EU. It is important to include that dimension of the transatlantic arrangement in the discussions.

Ireland supports Bosnia and Herzegovina's EU perspective and we welcome the fact that this was reaffirmed in the December 2012 Council conclusions on enlargement. It is, however, important to remember that enlargement is a conditional process. Prospective EU members must implement the reforms and meet the criteria required. There can be no exemptions or special conditions for any country. The Bosnian Government and political leaders must make real and sustained progress in order to realise the country's EU perspective. What is required is clearly laid out in the December Council conclusions and in the June 2012 roadmap agreed by the Commission and Bosnia and Herzegovina's leaders. Unfortunately, the timetable for implementing the roadmap has slipped. Štefan Füle, the Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy, was in Bosnia and Herzegovina last week to underline to their institutional and political leaders how urgent it is to implement the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Sejdić and Finci. He had originally planned to hold a meeting of the high level dialogue on EU accession but cancelled this due to lack of progress on implementation of the Sejdić and Finci ruling. This lack of progress is frustrating. While we will do everything in our power to encourage movement on the path to EU integration, this is ultimately a matter for the political leaders of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The EU can encourage Bosnia and Herzegovina to continue their efforts on reform but it cannot impose a solution. I note that the EU is due to review its policy on Bosnia and Herzegovina in September of this year with a view to examining what further progress can be made.

I spoke about some of the issues Deputy Crowe mentioned, particularly Syria and the climate justice conference, in my earlier contributions.