Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

Last week I asked when Ireland proposed to sign the optional protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The Tánaiste undertook to have somebody communicate with me, but I have not yet received any information. Ireland was represented on 10 December 2008 at the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, upon which Irish officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs had worked. The optional protocol was adopted by consensus and Ireland attended the signing ceremony even though we were not in a position to sign. The Minister for Foreign Affairs wrote to me on 29 September saying he was making every effort to ensure the consideration of Ireland's signature would be speeded up; hence my question.

The importance of the protocol is that it would have enabled individuals and groups to make complaints to the United Nations committee directly if there were breaches of their economic, social or cultural rights. Will we be signing the protocol in the lifetime of this Government? I am not talking about ratification, but we have stopped short of even signing this very basic instrument on human rights.

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