Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will send the Deputy a note on it. The Deputy mentioned a number of other things. India requested to join the Missile Technology Control Regime, MTCR, as it is called. We indicated to Prime Minister Modi that Ireland was prepared to join a consensus on the Missile Technology Control Regime at a recent meeting in Rotterdam but no consensus emerged from that. India had also submitted an application for membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, NSG, and Ireland is aware of India's keen interest in membership of the two groups involved. We appreciate its importance in terms of enhancing their capacity to trade in civil nuclear technologies. The recent NSG plenary meeting looked at the question of membership of the group for states which are not parties to the non-proliferation treaty, NPT, and agreed that this issue would continue to be examined by the group. Ireland looks forward to taking part in these discussions and to continuing to take an active part in it.

The question of UN Security Council reform was also mentioned. We are very supportive of Security Council reform. Ireland has continued to be very frustrated at the slow pace of reform and the impact it has on the council being able to act as efficiently and effectively as it should. We believe the five elements of UN Security Council reform are interconnected as part of a single package: categories of membership, the question of the veto, regional representation, the size of an enlarged council, and working methods and the relationship between the council and the General Assembly. One can only get success if there is agreement on all these five areas. We are very supportive as a country of the intergovernmental negotiations and Security Council reform and we believe now is a very opportune time to move towards what is referred to as text-based negotiations, that is, putting it down in writing.

On the question of the composition and membership of the UN Security Council, Prime Minister Modi raised the issue of UN reform and he specifically highlighted India's desire for a permanent seat at the Security Council. We recognise, as we have always done, that there is a need to expand the membership of the Security Council so it better reflects 21st century realities in a regionally balanced way. Any expansion of membership should accommodate member states that play a particularly significant part in the United Nations system. However, Ireland would want to prevent any diminution in the capacity of smaller member states to serve as non-permanent members on a rotating basis at regular intervals, as Deputy Martin is aware happens now.

On the final issue of the question of the veto at the Security Council, we firmly oppose the conferral of veto powers on any new members. Similar to many other states, we believe that extending the veto right to additional members of the council will only compound the difficulties associated with the current arrangements regarding veto rights. We wish to see the veto rights of the five permanent members of the Security Council - the P5 - ended. We are a supporter of the Accountability, Coherence and Transparency Group which has launched a code of conduct calling for positive action by all members of the United Nations to prevent genocide and crimes against humanity. We have associated ourselves with the political declaration which was presented by Mexico and France calling for the voluntary suspension of the veto by permanent members of the Security Council in cases of mass atrocities. Deputy Martin is also aware that I was at the UN summit in September on the 2030 agenda for sustainable development, and a new global development agenda was set out there. A key component of that was the sustainable development goals of the 2030 agenda. That is the second of three major international agreements to be concluded in 2015 to promote sustainable development at the global level. The conference in Paris in December 2015 was a very significant achievement to which we will measure up when final targets are set for Ireland. In my address at the summit, I reiterated our commitment to make progress towards the target of 0.7% of GDP for overseas development aid, a central part of achieving the sustainable development goals. These were also matters that we referred to in the discussion with Prime Minister Modi.

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