Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

We will lead from the front on this issue. As Deputy Mac Lochlainn acknowledged, we strongly argued that there should be a human rights clause in the free trade agreement. The agreement provides for a suspension or abandonment of the agreement if human rights are not honoured in Colombia. I share the concern expressed about the dangers in Colombia for trade union activists. I raised that directly with the Vice President when he was here. The Vice President is a former trade union leader in Colombia and has some understanding of these issues. We intend to proceed with this and it is one of the reasons we discussed the possibility of an arrangement whereby the civil society organisations on the Irish and Colombian sides, such as NGOs and trade unions, could have an exchange at that level. This would lead to active engagement between people who work the ground in the trade union area with counterparts in Colombia. We will keep on top of this.

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