Mr. Des Hogan:

I am acting CEO of the Human Rights Commission. As Professor Mullally mentioned, we have undertaken work on the Magdalen laundries which we will see progress in the coming weeks. Two big issues which have been flagged are the impact of austerity measures throughout Europe - this is seen as becoming a bigger issue in Greece, Portugal, Spain and Ireland - and the privatisation of water services. Emerging human rights issues include cloning; while we do not yet have specific plans to work on this issue, no doubt the commission will want to consider them. We are involved with the Prison Service in education and training in human rights. We have been pushing for the recognition of Traveller ethnicity and expect this work to continue in coming months.