Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Regarding the Taoiseach's visit to the United States, I accept fully that the issue of the undocumented is not one that can now be resolved by the Government here alone. As a former Minister for Foreign Affairs, I have been involved in this issue. It seems to me that the situation is deteriorating, given the political environment in the United States and the hardening of attitudes towards inward migration into that country. I put it to the Taoiseach that we need to return to the bilateral track and seek to ensure that bilateral agreements with the United States are reached. This is very difficult in itself. I know other groups do not want us to do that. The Latinos, in particular, are watching to see if any separate bilateral deals are done. I managed to initiate and conclude a working holiday agreement with the then Deputy Secretary of State, Mr. Negroponte, who is a Republican. The agreement was more restrictive than the Japanese one in so far as it required graduates to look for work specific to their degrees in the United States. Nonetheless, it was a bilateral agreement of sorts that dealt with a limited cohort of graduates - those who had graduated from college in the previous year.

I am concerned about the J1 visa, which has been identified by the Taoiseach as critical. One issue in terms of Ireland's global perspective arises here. In previous generations, emigration created a critical mass of Irish Americans. The great influence of these people has helped significantly to shape opinion in America towards Ireland and issues on this island from an economic, social and political perspective. There is a need to maintain that engagement with the United States through bilateral formats. It would be useful if the Departments of the Taoiseach and Foreign Affairs and Trade were to develop a strategic team that would take a long-term approach to working out how to develop bilateral arrangements and engagements with the United States. The reality we now face is that it will be difficult to achieve any fundamental change in the immigration policy of Congress. I have been listening to this for a decade. People attack Governments on this issue in the full knowledge that it is kind of shallow to do so. The real change has to happen on the other side of the Atlantic. There is no sign of such a change in US politics, which is going in the opposite direction. To be fair, President Obama made an executive order. I think we need to clarify or outline what the practical impact of that will be for many of the undocumented Irish.

I am delighted that the Taoiseach visited the United Technologies Corporation. I was involved in some of the first meetings with representatives of that corporation when I served as Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. I initiated relationships with them and helped to further their engagement with Ireland. That has borne fruit. For a long time, this country's longer-term industrialisation policy has been based on low corporate taxes, long-term investment in education and good availability of skills as key ingredients to attract inward investment. I am glad that the Taoiseach is continuing that approach.

I am pleased that the Taoiseach has met President el-Sisi. We need to take a strong stance on what is happening to Ibrahim Halawa because it is not acceptable. He has been held without trial for far too long. If I may say so, behaviour of this kind by Governments in the Middle East and elsewhere exacerbates the alienation that is felt by people and unfortunately leads to their radicalisation. I think we need more intelligent responses to situations like this. It is a basic issue of justice for an Irish citizen. As I have said, what is going on is unacceptable. I do not know whether the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade has had any meetings with his Egyptian counterpart. Has he visited Cairo? The Taoiseach might indicate whether the Government has considered the possibility of a ministerial visit that would endeavour to put pressure to secure Ibrahim Halawa's release.

I commend the Permanent Representative to the United Nations, David Donoghue, on his outstanding work on the sustainable development goals. Ireland has a proud tradition as a distinguished contributor at the United Nations. I refer, for example, to the involvement of Frank Aiken in the emergence of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. More recently, Dermot Ahern and I worked on the convention on the banning of cluster munitions, which was agreed in Croke Park a number of years ago. While I was involved in the later stages of the work on the convention, it was Dermot Ahern who did much of the running on it. We worked with approximately five other countries. This shows the work that small countries can do at UN level. Mr. Donoghue, who has been working on the sustainable development goals, is a very committed diplomat who holds substantial viewpoints and has a hard work ethic. I am pleased for him and for Ireland. Along with his team at the UN and at Iveagh House, he worked with the ambassador of Kenya to lead the way for agreement on the sustainable development goals to be reached.

I ask the Taoiseach to set out what the realistic prospects are for Ireland to achieve its development aid contribution target.

For a long time, 0.7% of GDP has been a globally accepted target. That can be fine when economic growth is not going well. Paradoxically, it can be easier to get to a 0.7% target with low growth but when economic growth is very high one allocates a lot of resources very quickly, which there might not be adequate capacity to absorb. There needs to be some reflective thinking on this to bring about a more sustainable, long-term contribution that rides the cyclical nature of our economy better than has been the case over the past decade. In the first ten years of this century huge moneys went out in aid but huge growth rates meant we still did not make the 0.7% target. We ended up pumping lots of money into UN funds which were good for emergencies but when recession or retraction came this changed. We are a cyclical open economy and that is going to happen so there needs to be a more even-steven approach, which is very project focused and also focused on the key issues of education and governance in other countries. Does the Taoiseach have any thoughts on that?

The approach of the United Nations to global warming is unequivocal. I support the need to protect agriculture and food development because food security is essential but one gets the impression that, over the past five or six years, Ireland has been pulling back and we do not get the whole idea of climate change and how serious it is for the future. One only has to witness the recent storms, which are happening with far more regularity and frequency than 20 or 30 years ago. This is a global phenomenon but one that is impacting on Ireland. I am disappointed we have not had a radical plan on transport to reduce our emissions or new technologies and innovations that could save energy and reduce CO2 emissions so that we can make our targets. Our approach is not ambitious but seems, instead, to be to excuse ourselves from ambitious targets in transport, technology and innovations. There is a lot more potential to engage, particularly in research and development as a third pillar of Science Foundation Ireland, which we initiated in our last term in Government. To what degree has that kind of thing materialised or been developed?

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