Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In response to Deputy Barry, I am sure the line Ministers would be happy to provide reports on their meetings and what was and was not said. It is standard for Ministers abroad to raise human rights concerns and issues if they are meeting another politician, but not necessarily if they are meeting somebody who is not a politician or representative of a Government.

I am aware of the Phelan case. We are working on it. Suffice to say, relations between Ireland and Iran are not very close for many different reasons. I am not sure if threatening not to open an embassy would be helpful to Mr. Phelan's case. These are sensitive issues; we are trying to deal with as sensitively as we can. We have a chargé d'affaires in the German embassy who is working with the Iranian authorities to do anything we can to secure Mr. Phelan's release. That is what we will do. Ultimately, we are in the hands of the Iranians in that regard.

Deputy Ó Cathasaigh raised the sustainable development goals. Ireland holds the pen, with Qatar, on this issue. It will be a priority for the Government, and for me as the Head of Government, in the coming months. I will be in New York in September for the UN General Assembly. We made some very good progress when the sustainable development goals were first agreed, but for lots of reasons, including wars, pandemics, and hyperinflation, the world has fallen backwards in terms of achieving those goals and I would like us to get back on track again. That is something we are going to prioritise in our UN-related work, in particular between now and September and then beyond.

I very much welcome the fact that the government in Israel has suspended its plans to reduce the independence of its judiciary. When it comes to Palestine, as I have always said, we support Palestinian statehood and independence. We oppose the occupation, the settlements, and the poor treatment of Palestinian people and the second-class citizen status of Arabs within Israel. Israel is a democracy, at least in the sense that its citizens get to elect its government. It has LGBT rights. It has trade-union rights. Trade unions were at the forefront in standing up to the attempts-----

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