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

This has been a very important meeting. We have discussed how it is best for the Irish Government to pressurise the Colombian Government into conforming with the human rights and labour rights clauses. I am learning as I go along. We have an EU ambassador representing Ireland, Maria Antonia van Gool. Her thinking about the human rights clauses is very interesting. She stated:

In the end, particularly our trade agreement which contains some of the highest social standards will have an influence. People will feel supported by what is in the trade agreement and will use it as a backup, they will bring it to the attention of somebody in case it is not respected - parliamentarians, the EU or their own government.

So she admits that putting labour rights legislation in place may take some time. I am drawing attention to that because it would seem that the EU ambassador thinks that the clauses about labour rights and human rights are really there for the NGOs to point them out to President Santos's Government and in that way implement change. I believe we should invite Ms Maria Antonia van Gool to address the committee.

Technically, she is the Irish representative on the ground in Colombia. She is charged with implementing our human rights and labour rights clauses. As the committee will be aware, the Irish Government has been strong in insisting on that element of the agreement based on human rights.