John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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I will follow up on the points made by the two previous speakers on the Yazidi community and the UN report findings that genocide was committed in Iraq by ISIS. The Minister and I have spoken on the floor of the Chamber about declaring that other genocides have taken place, namely in Armenia. We disagree on how we come to the finding that a genocide has or has not taken place.

On 15 June, we have representatives from the Yazidi community before the committee. It would be important to proceed with the meeting and listen to what they have to say. Maybe at that point we can communicate directly with the Minister. We need to do more, in view of the finding that genocide was committed. When I asked the Minister about the Government acknowledging and recognising that the Armenian genocide took place, following numerous countries that have done so, he said he would talk to his officials, look at the position adopted to this point and maybe review it. While it would be difficult to get findings of guilt in court or anything like that, there is a lot of historical evidence showing genocide happened against the Armenian people. Hence, many countries, including quite recently the US, have come out and said genocide did take place. It is important to call these things out in the hope it will help in future instances to stop genocides taking place.

We have to wait until 15 June for our Yazidi meeting to see what actions we need to take and then follow up with the Minister. I ask for the Minister's response on the Armenian genocide.