H.E. Mr. David Donoghue:

As members are aware, this year is the 60th anniversary of Ireland's accession to the UN. It also happens to be the 70th anniversary of the founding of the UN. The latter anniversary will provide the backdrop to the September summit and there will be quite an amount of publicity surrounding the entire event. Ireland is marking 60 years of active engagement at the UN by hosting a number of public events, both at home and abroad, in order to raise awareness of the role we have played at the UN and the contribution we are continuing to make. We are known at the UN for an involvement in a number of areas. In no particular order, these are: human rights; disarmament and non-proliferation; peace and security, which is quite a broad spectrum but which includes issues such as women, peace and security - the role of women in defusing conflict; and, of course, development. At present, there is a strong emphasis on our development interests but over the years we have been known for our engagement on the wider set of matters to which I refer.

On 25 May, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade formally launched the 60th anniversary programme of events. This programme includes: thematic lectures; a UN youth delegate programme and related youth events; a commemorative exhibition, which will be hosted in both New York and Ireland, about the early years of our membership; a peacekeeping event in partnership with the Department of Defence and the Defence Forces; and a symposium marking the date on which Ireland formally acceded to the UN, namely, 14 December 1955. As the Chairman stated, some of the events in the programme have already taken place. In particular, I refer to the visit of the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, which was a notable success. The Secretary General's visit came about specifically because he was awarded the Tipperary International Peace Award but we used his coming here as an occasion to reflect more broadly on Ireland's role at the UN in this 60th anniversary year. Ban Ki-moon managed to engage on each of those policy areas to which I refer. The recent Irish Humanitarian Summit can also be seen as an initiative in the context of the anniversary, although it was actually one of the events being held in the build-up to the World Humanitarian Summit which is to be held next year and which will be a key priority for Ban Ki-moon in his final year in office. There are various other events and activities that will be held during the anniversary. For example, a reference map of our UN engagement across the globe will be published and distributed to all secondary schools in the run-up to the UN General Assembly week in September.

I will leave it at that, if I may. I just wanted to provide a quick overview of the activities planned. I might add that an extremely attractive brochure, A Place Among the Nations: Ireland at the UN 1955-2015, has been published by my colleagues at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.