Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I am not certain whether we have raised them directly, or not with those individual countries, but we have certainly raised them through the European Union. I would point out that we now have an EU special representative for the area, Dr. Annette Weber, who is doing very excellent work. We raised Sudan at the most recent meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council. The Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, will represent Ireland at the next meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council where we will seek to raise this again. We are part of a core group of like-minded EU member states. The most recent meeting of that like-minded EU member state group took place on 23 June to discuss how the EU can take a more collective approach to Sudan, so perhaps this is something we can return to after the next series of engagements we have.

The reality is that there are many countries and entities, including the European Union, ready to play a part in mediation and in trying to find a way forward but at the moment, being quite frank, interest in that seems to have halted. We have to look at what we can do to maximise the pressure to get both parties back to a negotiating table.

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