Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for his detailed presentation on the work of the Foreign Affairs Council in recent months. While he has not appeared before the joint committee previously, he and I have discussed practically all of the issues under consideration today by way of parliamentary questions and Topical Issue debates.

On the Israel-Palestine conflict, I welcome the Minister's comment that he intends to pursue this issue at European Union level. I hope there will be greater engagement on the matter by the European Union. As the Minister stated, no real progress is being made towards ending the conflict and he correctly noted that circumstances are deteriorating sharply. Unfortunately, innocent people have again lost their lives in recent days in a series of extremely worrying incidents.

I welcome the decision of Sweden to formally recognise Palestine as a state and the decision of Seanad Éireann to accept, without division, a motion tabled by Senator Averil Power. I have sought, through the office of the Fianna Fáil Party Whip, to have a debate arranged on a similar motion in Dáil Éireann. I hope the Government will facilitate such a debate at an early date.

I welcome the Minister's attendance at the conference on the reconstruction of Gaza, which remains a significant challenge. Unfortunately, the Israeli blockade remains in place. My understanding is that the crossings into Gaza are operating largely as they did prior to the conflict of the summer months and that restrictions have been eased only very slightly. Further expansion of settlements was announced by the Israelis on 1 September and in late October. It goes without saying that the continued expansion of settlements endangers the viability of a two-state solution, a policy to which Ireland has been committed for decades.

I welcome the Minister's comment that he will encourage and advocate strongly that the European Union and his colleagues on the Foreign Affairs Council exert strong pressure on Israel to halt its violations of international law and hope the European Union will become more directly involved in this issue.

There are also reports that concern me that some EU member states are pressurising Palestine not to accede to the International Criminal Court. I hope the Minister can update us on this issue. I hope the Minister can advocate at the Council meeting next week that the EU should push for a complete lifting of the blockade. We have had promises at EU level and from the Minister's predecessor that progress would be made on a ban on settlement products. I do not know what progress has been made in that respect. It is probably very little. Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands and one or two other countries put in place policies to ban settlement products. I would like to hear what further progress has been made on it.

The committee had a constructive meeting with the Minister's officials and representatives of the NGOs with regard to the Ebola outbreak. I compliment the Department's staff and the members of the Defence Forces who will go to work in the region. I wish them well in their work in the most difficult of circumstances. The representatives and personnel of the NGOs are working under difficult circumstances.

At the October Council meeting, the EU and its member states committed to a certain level of funding to deal with the Ebola outbreak. Subsequently, at the European Council meeting, a commitment was made to double the pledge made by the Foreign Affairs Ministers. Is that happening? I welcome the fact that the Minister has already committed €70 million to help to deal with the outbreak. Are other countries honouring their commitments and pledges made at Council of Ministers meetings? Is the Minister confident the figures of more than 13,000 reported cases of people afflicted with Ebola and 5,000 deaths do not represent under-reporting?

With regard to Iraq and Syria, the Minister outlined a worrying picture, which is a cause of concern to all. The countries in the region that have facilitated refugees and working under difficult circumstances to accommodate refugees must be given international assistance. At one of the meetings, it was reported that tensions are building in one of the neighbouring countries, which is worrying.

One of the issues brought to the attention of me and other committee members is that there are ongoing violations of United Nations Security Council resolutions 2139 and 2188 in Syria. The resolutions ordered the end of the use of barrel bombs and banned the use of poison gas respectively. A large number of deaths have taken place due to such activities.

Deaths in recent days in the Ukraine must be of concern to the international community. My understanding was that the 5 September ceasefire had helped to reduce the intensity of the fighting but it is not operational at the moment. There are reports that the EU and the US are considering further bans on Russia. Is that being considered at EU level?

In his concluding remarks, the Minister referred to any other issues we may like to bring to his attention. We had a number of discussions at this committee about the proposed transatlantic trade and investment partnership. Ireland has concerns about the protection of the agriculture industry and the protection of human rights. It is laid down in the Lisbon treaty that there should be an assessment of any human rights aspect in any trade deals the EU involves itself in.

I wish the Minister well in the Northern Ireland talks and I welcome the fact that he has taken a hands-on approach since the summertime. Any time we have made substantial progress on difficult issues in Northern Ireland, the two sovereign Governments were key participants in the talks. I hope the Minister, the Secretary of State and the two parties can make progress by the end of November.