Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Tánaiste's introduction of these motions to seek formal agreement. We are formalising agreements that have been in place for some years and I welcome that progress. It helps to deepen and expand co-operation.

South Africa has a population in excess of 50 million, while there are 250 million people in Indonesia. I do not know the population of South Korea but it has the 15th largest economy in the world. That demonstrates the need for Europe to have up-to-date agreements with those trading blocs. I am glad that in each of the agreements, aspects related to democracy, human rights, climate change and the rule of law, things we take for granted, are included. It is vital that the European Union is a force to ensure best governance and human rights protection in countries where we are involved in trade.

In view of the conference earlier this week, every trade agreement Europe is finalising or reviewing should take account of climate change and environmental issues. Food security is a huge issue. I am not as despondent as some about the huge challenges globally arising from the world's population increasing from 7 billion to in excess of 9 billion by 2050. When we think of the technological competence available today, competence that could not have been envisaged a few decades ago, and we consider the issue Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan regularly highlights here and in the Dáil, the huge untapped resources across the world, we can benefit from the huge technological advances to ensure we have proper access to unused resources, particularly when it comes to food production. It is incumbent on Europe, as a major trading bloc, to keep the stamp of food security, environmental issues and climate change to the fore in all agreements. That has been happening in recent years but we cannot underline the message too often.

I welcome these developments and the deepening of economic trade links with countries that have grown in affluence, albeit very unfairly spread in South Africa.

The economies of South Korea and Indonesia have been growing strongly and I hope that the vast majority of the population is benefiting by that growth. The committee will be aware of the considerable advances in education and in the ICT area, and the high skills level of the work force, for example, in South Korea. It is important that Ireland has up-to-date trade agreements with those, to some extent, newly-emerging economies.