Mr. Colin Wrafter:

The main debate will be in New York in the context of the UN General Assembly. The open working group has been established and will meet to examine the post-2015 scenario. A meeting in December, although not the first one, will be devoted to human rights. I see the role of the Human Rights Council as not primarily inputting into this process, but certainly working in parallel with it.

With the Chairman's permission I want to make a few points about this general issue, partly in response to Deputy Mitchell's comments but also in response to other members of the committee. There are a number of human rights principles that should be at the core of our thinking in all aspects of the post-2015 agenda, including the importance of addressing inequality and discrimination. Inequality and discrimination against vulnerable groups constitute one of the main barriers to achieving the eradication of poverty, including extreme poverty.

Gender equality and women's empowerment will be a critical element of this, and action to address this must be strengthened in the new post-2015 framework. A cross-cutting approach to inequality is essential, including recognising the rights of vulnerable and marginalised people everywhere, including poor people and persons who may be marginalised for other reasons, such as persons with disabilities, children, ethnic groups or geographically marginalised groups.

Ireland also recognises the importance of supporting governance as well as designing a framework to address the needs of conflict-affected and fragile states, and that would address critical development to challenges related to conflict and violence. These are priorities in our new development and will continue to be priorities for us in our engagement on all development issues, especially including the post-2015 framework.