John Minihan (Progressive Democrats)

When President Cox speaks about revisiting the UN Charter and how the Security Council comes to its decisions, a mechanism must be found in order that when we in Europe want to partake in a humanitarian aid project – and 99% of the Irish people would support the ongoing mission in Macedonia – an EU resolution on a humanitarian aid project must be able to receive some kind of UN sanction to allow us to overcome this problem. I firmly believe that our non-participation in Macedonia is quite an embarrassment.

I welcome President Cox's comments on Guantanamo Bay, an issue that has been addressed in this House continually and must be aired more often. We had an interesting debate on overseas development aid in this House last night in which the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Tom Kitt, participated. The President of the European Parliament raised the issue of volunteerism; it is interesting that one of the areas about which the Minister of State spoke was on a proposal that he hopes to bring forward next month in connection with the extension of volunteers working through APSO into the international arena. Again, President Cox's ideas on that subject will have the ear of the Minister of State who takes this very seriously.

From an Irish position, how does the President feel the area of the mutual defence and solidarity clause will progress over the next 12 months? Does he feel that, from an Irish perspective, we will be able to retain the status quo that currently exists in our defence commitments in Europe?