Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We are looking at a report of 12 months of work. I do not know how many members have read this report. It is extensive. It brings me back to the argument of whether we have the time and facilities to do this serious scrutiny of legislation.

On the last three areas, Albania holds elections this month. So does Mongolia. I wish both of them a happy outcome. My feedback from Albania is that matters are progressing. Mr. Cooney might give us an opinion. Perhaps he must wait until after the election for the OSCE to decide whether or not they were fair but I understand matters are progressing there.

This report covers something that has been the bane of my past two and a half years, that is, to understand the international players acting on behalf of Europe and humanity in general.

There are the United Nations and the European Union. Other bodies include the OSCE and the Council of Europe. Interestingly, both have "parliaments" of elected representatives. There are 56 countries affiliated to the OSCE. The document states there has been a study of the relationships between the organisations. The officials will be aware of the conflicting reports of the OSCE and the United States on election monitoring. The parliamentary assembly produced a report that was different from that of the OSCE. This ridiculousness on the part of an international body with such high status must not be allowed to continue.

Zimbabwe is the forgotten country. Ireland has a policy on Africa. Although Ireland is a small country, it has considerable influence in that continent. Do the officials believe we could use the professional skills of the Department in conjunction with those of individuals in Zimbabwe who have been educated by Irish missionaries - they include Mr. Mugabe - to work bilaterally, thereby achieving more than we would if we waited for the European Union to move? There is a highly educated workforce and Zimbabwe is a country of immense importance. Could we achieve greater understanding between the political forces there if we proceeded bilaterally?

Mr. David Donoghue will be familiar with the Khodorkovsky case because he was at a presentation I attended at which reference was made to it. I refer to the relationship with Russia. We dealt with the Magnitsky case and received rather undiplomatic correspondence from the Russian ambassador. Will the delegates advise us on how best we should approach the Russians? Russia is a very important country. When one bears in mind the oligarchs, individuals such as Khodorkovsky, the Magnitsky case and Boris Berezovsky, the man who died, how does one square the horror of the events surrounding the oil and gas barons and the oligarchs with our development of a relationship with Russia? We want to develop warm and cordial relationships with it. However, we are disappointed that the very pleasant Russian ambassador should have written such a negative comment to us when we were dealing with the Magnitsky case. He threatened that Ireland would not benefit from the adoption process that we had been negotiating for the past ten years.

I hope the officials have noted my questions because it could be another year before I will have the chance to ask them again.