Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply. Even though the British programme for government has not yet been published, in view of the commitment in the Conservative Party manifesto to scrap the Human Rights Act, it is incumbent on the Minister and his colleagues in government to give a clear message to the Secretary of State that they cannot renege on the provisions of an international treaty. As I stated earlier - the Minister referred to it as well - the Good Friday Agreement is an international treaty lodged by both Governments with the United Nations. Both Governments are co-guarantors of it. Can the Minister give us an assurance that he will make clear to the Secretary of State Villiers when he meets her today that under no circumstances can we tolerate any diminution in the terms of the Good Friday Agreement or in the provisions of an international treaty?

What is the situation regarding the long-proposed bill of rights for Northern Ireland? Will the Minister outline to the British Government, through the Secretary of State, the value of European Convention on Human Rights generally and that if the British were to depart from it, the only states which would really welcome it are states with a less than positive attitude to human rights? Apart from the Northern Ireland issue, which is of significant concern to us, there is also the wider context of the safeguarding of human rights.

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