John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

I welcome this opportunity to debate the issue of reform of the United Nations and wish the Minister for Foreign Affairs well in his position as a special envoy of the Secretary General. The Green Party has always supported the United Nations as the basis of international law. This is the reason we support the triple lock mechanism and seek to have it enshrined in the Constitution.

A United Nations mandate, so often dismissed by those who believe it is an impediment, is essential and has served Ireland well. Those who dismiss it will use the opportunity of the tenth anniversary of events in Srebrenica to attack the United Nations again. I want the Minister, in his role as special envoy, to be a vocal defender of the United Nations when such people emerge from the woodwork. It is simply untrue that the UN was responsible for the slaughter in Srebrenica. Anyone who has read David Rohde's book, Endgame, the most comprehensive account of events in Srebrenica, would tell the Minister that this is not the case. The reason for the slaughter was the failure of Dutch troops operating under General Janvier with a full peace enforcement mandate to call in close air support. The regrettable truth is that the Dutch troops did not even like the people they were defending. Let us hear the truth as we approach the tenth anniversary of Srebrenica. It is essential that Mr. Slobodan Milosevic and Mr. Radovan Karadzic are brought to justice for this most reprehensible and tragic episode.

The House must examine many aspects of the report on reform of the United Nations, but has little time to do so. The report calls for collective responsibility to protect civilian populations from genocide and ethnic cleansing and states that the wider international community should be able to intervene but only using force as a last resort. The Green Party would support such a broadening of the UN mandate.

Deputy Michael Higgins raised pre-emptive strikes, a crucial issue in the controversy surrounding the war in Iraq. The report states that five strict criteria for acting pre-emptively must be met, as follows: the threat should be defined, the purpose of intervention should be clear, intervention should be a last resort, the means should be proportionate and the consequences should be examined. The Green Party is wary of pre-emptive actions. Why is the crucial word "evidence" not included in the criteria, given that lack of evidence was the principal problem with regard to Iraq? As we now know, there were no weapons of mass destruction.

A crucial reform would be to hold to account those who make promises before the UN General Assembly. It is unacceptable that the Taoiseach made a solemn commitment in front of the General Assembly that Ireland would increase its overseas development aid to 0.7% of GNP by 2007. However, having made a commitment to the world's poorest people and secured sufficient votes to be elected to the Security Council, he welshed on the deal. This was shameful behaviour about which there was palpable anger among those who marched on the streets of Dublin last night. If the Minister believes in reform, he should ensure a measure is introduced to prevent others from behaving in the irresponsible manner in which his Government acted.

The Minister should also examine the growing trend to use the new threat of terrorism as an excuse to increase arms sales. Deputy Michael Higgins cited a figure on annual expenditure on arms of €900 billion, which featured in a report by Jeffrey Sachs. A more recent figure indicates that the annual value of the arms trade has increased to €1,000 billion. This is an incredible sum, a fraction of which would be sufficient to eliminate world poverty. Let us not use the new threat of terrorism as an excuse to bolster the arms industry.

Before he heads off to New York, I ask the Minister to give two commitments to the House. First, will he give us a timetable for meeting the target of 0.7% of GNP? Second, will the Government sign up to the arms trade treaty, as I have requested on many occasions, and urge others to do likewise? All I ask is that the Minister, on the last day of the session, make these two commitments in the House.

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