Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will try to be brief. The Minister dealt with a lot of issues in his presentation and I will not be able to cover everything in the time allowed. I acknowledge the Minister's commitment to providing advice and guidance to this committee.

The Minister mentioned the situation in Yemen, which is obviously a catastrophic human rights tragedy. The ongoing conflict there is, in the main, supported by Saudi Arabia. In that context, I want to return to a issue that we have discussed previously. I will be general because I have given up on trying to get a specific response as to how we voted on the membership of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. In response to parliamentary questions that I tabled, the Minister appears to be suggesting that we did support Saudi Arabia in its accession to that committee. He stated in a response that his Department had received no representations asking Ireland to oppose Saudi Arabia's accession to the aforementioned committee. Given that the Suadis are one of the main protagonists in the ongoing conflict in Yemen and the terrible tragedies that are occurring there, I ask that the Department would undertake a review of our policy of keeping private all votes for UN commissions. I accept that there are numerous elections across a range of bodies at the UN. I also accept that there are situations sometimes where national security or strategic interests are at stake and it may be necessary to keep how we vote in elections private. However, our votes on the membership of committees should not be kept private, particularly the UN Commission on the Status of Women. We need to reconsider this policy going forward. While I acknowledge the Minister's point that this has been standard practice over generations, that does not mean it is correct in all instances. I would like this committee to examine the issue, with a view to proposing new procedures. Across the-----