Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I shall begin by congratulating the Minister on his promotion and thank him for his presentation. I assure the Chairman that I shall be as quick as I can. I join with the Minister in congratulating our embassy staff who are working on the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone along with the NGOs and volunteers who have gone to the region. As he said, they have undertaken challenging and dangerous work. I am sure it is heartening for them to learn there is the prospect of bringing Ebola under control again, albeit it is just a prospect at this stage.
I listened carefully to what the Minister said about Palestine. We have all heard about Sweden's position. Plus the Seanad has adopted a position and is in favour of recognising the State of Palestine. I carefully noted that he said the position is being monitored and the policy position is being kept under consideration. Later he mentioned that he did not rule out taking the same position as Sweden. To me that sounds like a policy shift, albeit he just signalled the potential of such a shift. It is movement and is borne out of what motivated the Seanad and Sweden to act. I refer to the utter frustration that we all feel about what is not happening in terms of a two-state solution. That cause is not moving forward and becomes more remote with every passing day. I have great sympathy with the position expressed by Sweden, the Seanad and others. Our favoured position is a negotiated comprehensive solution. Another preferred position is to take a common European approach if possible. There may come a day when it will become obvious that is not possible and we will have to move ahead. I am just glad that we are keeping that door open if not going through it just yet.
A number of people have mentioned the investor state dispute settlement. I am interested in the clause in the trade talks with the US. On the one side, we have heard it gives huge power to international companies to sue individual countries. On the other hand, we have been told that it is an essential clause to safeguard inward investment. I am interested in hearing the Minister's take on the situation.
With regard to the talks on sustainable development goals which are taking place in the UN, we have some leverage because its joint chair is one of our own. I have a particular interest in two areas. I am chairperson on the all-party group on maternal care and health, population and development. I also have an interest in gender issues. Earlier we had a meeting, organised by Deputy Eric Byrne, to which he invited a group of disabled persons from the Philippines. It was an opportunity for them to lobbied on behalf of the disabled. They were anxious to ensure that disability is included in the new development goals to be attained by 2030. Both gender and disability issues are in the proposed goals which is welcome. The gender issues were inserted at a late stage during the negotiations of the millennium development goals but disability issues did not really appear at all. We are pretty much at the end game of the sustainable goals now. Therefore, I ask the Minister to use whatever leverage we have to ensure that both the gender and disabilities issues are given priority and do not slip off the agenda again.
Chairman:The final contributor is Senator Mullins.