Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

One cannot find a tradesman to do a small or medium-sized job, they are only available to build 55 or 110 houses in an estate. Is there an opportunity for the Government to follow the German example in this respect? It appears that there is a gap in this area which may be to do with funding. I cannot understand why an apprenticeship course would have been abandoned in an institute of technology. I only have anecdotal evidence in this regard and I stand to be corrected on the details.

In the context of the Bill I welcome the emphasis the bank has placed in recent years in the stability pact for south-east Europe. Will the Minister give serious consideration to raising the issue of human rights violations in Kosovo? We could perhaps support civic society in its attempts to inform and educate Albanian and Serbian Kosovans, particularly the Serbian population of Serbia, about human rights violations because it is part of the mandate. For example, the mandate refers to efforts to foster peace, democracy, respect for human rights and economic prosperity in order to achieve stability in the whole region, which is still potentially explosive. There is no question that until and unless a final settlement is reached in the Kosovo region and the Serbians are brought into the European fold to comply with European norms, especially in respect of tracking down and handing over of the war criminals, Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, they will not be part of the European family of nations in the way they wish to be.

In Croatia, the bank has provided social housing for returning emigrants, where the problem remains. It is an area in which the country has benefited through its involvement in the Council of Europe Development Bank. The former Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Cowen, played an impressive role during Ireland's EU Presidency and visited the troubled area, in which 213 Irish troops are operating under the UNMOVIC mandate.

A group from Kosovo visited with the sub-committee on human rights and its members outlined their views. As the Minister of State is in the House, I ask him to address the unresolved issues regarding the return of the bodies of civilians from Kosovo who were murdered by Serbian forces in 1999 following the NATO bombings. Some 700 bodies have still not been returned by the Serbian authorities, which are dragging their feet by insisting they do not have the medical facilities to provide proper post-mortems and are sending the bodies on a drip-drip basis. Some 31 bodies were returned one year and 25 another since 2000. Can anyone imagine the trauma the families of those unfortunate victims are feeling, as a result of what I believe to be the definite violation of the human rights and dignity of Kosovo Albanians? Reference is made in the mandate of the bank, of which Ireland will now be part, to respect for human rights.

In the week in which one of Ireland's best-loved and oldest institutions in this city, Bewley's, is being shut down in the interests of commercial greed, the question of a national trust for Ireland must be addressed. As cultural heritage forms part of the mandate of the Council of Europe Development Bank Bill, surely the Government must be able to do something, even in the face of commercial reality where such an operation is privately owned. In any other country, the Bewley's buildings on Westmoreland Street and Grafton Street would be immediately protected as listed buildings and a national trust, such as exists in the UK, would be financed by the Government to take over the buildings.

However, next week these cafés will be shut down and those wonderful stained glass windows and the whole ethos of what Bewley's has represented for Irish people as well as Dubliners will be lost forever. If the Council of Europe Development Bank Bill is supposed to be about anything in the context of the protection of cultural heritage, this is a perfect example, of which there are many more.

I am grateful that the Minister of State has come to the House to take this Bill in his capacity as Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs, a very wide remit. This Bill will prove to be a very positive development in Ireland's continuing engagement with European institutions. If it does nothing but raise awareness of the important work of the Council of Europe in its institutions and parliamentary assembly, this will be a good day's work.