Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is this Government that brought forward the idea in the programme for Government to deliver on this because we take our human rights obligations very seriously. One can see that from all our actions in multilateral forums, particularly the UN. I met Volker Türk, the head of UN human rights, on many occasions in my last brief. We take very seriously our obligations.

With regard to the report, some of the areas are very technical in nature because new EU instruments have come on board that we have to respond to. Secondly, it is always very dangerous for a politician to come in and give a date when some of the actions are not under the purview of my Department. I cannot force other Departments to respond immediately.

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