Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Tánaiste for his detailed presentation. At the select committee's meeting in respect of the Revised Estimates, I had the opportunity to compliment the Tánaiste, the Minister of State, Deputy Costello, the former Minister of State, Deputy Creighton, their colleagues in the Department and all the relevant officials on a successful Presidency. The commitment shown by the officials to whom I refer was extremely important in this regard.

Ireland's membership of the Human Rights Council is a very progressive development and I welcome it. I also welcome the Tánaiste's indication that the two initiatives on which he will focus in respect of the September meeting relate to civil society space and child mortality. These are extremely important issues. As the Tánaiste is aware, the universal periodic review, UPR, involves a review carried out over a four-and-a-half-year period in each EU member state. In light of this country's long-standing commitment to ensuring that human rights are placed at the centre of its development co-operation programmes, its role within the Human Rights Council and the fact that it is an active participant in the UPR process, does the Government plan to incorporate recommendations from the latter process in its bilateral development co-operation programmes? I see this as a mechanism to promote UPR recommendations to greater effect and it is something which might be worth considering.

We have discussed the situation in Syria on Question Time in the Dáil and at all of the committee's meetings in recent months. The Tánaiste described the situation as "dire". Unfortunately, matters have been escalating and in excess of 100,000 people have been killed and millions more have been displaced. The Tánaiste stated that this will again be a major subject for consideration by him and his European counterparts at the next meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council. The European Union has lived up to the pledges it made in respect of this matter. However, has there been any improvement in the context of the major powers and the international community in general honouring the pledges made with regard to the provision of humanitarian aid? Has progress been made in the context of ensuring that such aid reaches those who most need it? Some months ago there were reports that the Assad regime was directing this aid to its own supporters.

At the end of 2011 the Tánaiste stated, "The Assad regime must make way for a genuine political transition". At that point, it appeared that a political solution would be found among the opposition groups and parties in Syria. In reply to a recent parliamentary question I tabled the Tánaiste stated:

Promoting a power-sharing agreement between the Syrian authorities and the opposition is clearly the only way to end the violence and to respond to the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people for peace and democracy. Ireland and its EU partners will continue to work hard to achieve these vital objectives.

Is that Government policy and is it EU policy as well in terms of how it is envisaged a resolution could be achieved?

In his remarks the Tánaiste also mentioned that the EU would probably review its policy before 1 August. He said he was not confident about a Geneva II conference taking place until the autumn. We all know the urgency of the situation. There was some hope at the time the US Secretary of State, Mr. Kerry, and his Russian counterpart made a joint statement that we might have a conference sooner rather than later. Based on the Tánaiste’s script, is he pessimistic about when a conference would be held?

The holding of a hunger and nutrition conference in this country in April under the Presidency was a welcome development. I am aware the Tánaiste will work closely with his Lithuanian counterparts during their Presidency. It would be desirable if they would ensure that climate change, bio-fuels and a potential Council conclusion on the area would continue to be given priority during the Lithuanian Presidency.

As the Chairman said, when Senator Kerry was appointed Secretary of State in early January, if not previous to that, the number of visits he made to the Middle East gave some hope that momentum would be created to get the negotiations going again. Time has elapsed and I gather from the Tánaiste’s contribution that he is worried about the lack or loss of momentum in recent months.