Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

The UN World Summit held in September 2005 agreed a package of UN reforms which, while not as complete as might have been hoped, represented an important advance. My colleague, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, contributed to the summit outcome in his role as one of the five special envoys appointed by former Secretary General Annan to support his recommendations for change aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of the UN. Work to implement these reforms has been proceeding since then on a number of levels.

During the current session of the UN General Assembly, Ireland and Tanzania are leading the effort to reform the United Nations development architecture through the implementation of the recommendations of the high level panel on system-wide coherence. The panel reported in late 2006 and its proposals mainly centre on the development of a unified UN presence at country level, with one leader, one programme, one budget and a single office. As the only Member of this House who worked within the UN as a human rights fellow in 1978, I have found, since I became Minister of State, that the institution has not changed a lot and certainly in this area reform is required.

The core objective of these reforms is to improve the delivery of aid by the UN in developing countries. Since the publication of the panel report, pilot programmes have been established in eight countries, including in three Irish Aid priority countries, namely, Vietnam, Tanzania and Mozambique.

The Irish Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, Ambassador Paul Kavanagh, was appointed by the President of the UN General Assembly to co-chair, with his Tanzanian colleague, the process of consideration and implementation of the panel recommendations within the General Assembly.

More broadly on the reform agenda, discussions are continuing on the important issues of management reform and reform of the Security Council. Ireland has actively supported the continuing efforts to bring about improvements in the management of the UN, and improvements could certainly be effected. However, despite progress in a number of areas, there remains much more to be done. The President of the General Assembly recently highlighted the need to focus on three areas in particular the way mandates are formulated, implemented and evaluated; planning and budgetary processes; and human resource management.

As regards reform of the Security Council, Ireland's view is that a more representative, efficient and transparent Security Council is an essential aspect of reforming the UN to meet the many global challenges which we face. We welcome and support the current efforts of the president of the General Assembly to reinvigorate the debate. Following an open meeting on this issue on 10 April, he and his task force, comprising the permanent representatives of Bangladesh, Chile, Djibouti and Portugal, have initiated consultations with member states to take the process of Security Council reform forward. Following consultations, he intends to convene another meeting on this matter before presenting recommendations to the General Assembly before the end of this current session.

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