Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Peter Power, to the House. I congratulate Senator Norris on proposing a motion covering such a wide range of issues which he has raised consistently, regularly and energetically for several years in the House. We should congratulate Senator Norris on highlighting these issues. We call on the Government to affirm strongly and publicly its commitment to human rights and to the individual exercise of those rights both domestically and internationally. Will the Minister of State indicate in his response whether he can endorse that part of the motion, and that the Government has no difficulty strongly and publicly affirming its commitment to human rights and to the individual exercise of those rights, both domestically and internationally? It is important to put this on the record, despite the extent to which we are critical of the Government in terms of how it has dealt with the matter today. I wish to strike that balance, which is important for those reading the record of the debate. We can argue about the implementation and the funding but at least our objectives should coincide.

In the last hour, I have listened to the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Power, defending the Government's position in the other House. My point is that people must retain the objective and the philosophy and then they will deal with the issue.

Senator Norris has quite correctly raised these matters in his motion. Issues arise in this regard and, while I will not have time to cover all the areas, I wish to refer to a few of them. In the past five years, before the departure to China of every ministerial group, I have written to the Government asking it to raise the questions of Tibet and Chinese human rights. The Government should do this and a balance can be found in this regard. Ireland has gone in one direction only and has not raised the issue of rights with the Chinese Government. On every occasion, I should at least be reassured that the Government has stated that this is a matter with which the western world will not put up and about which it must see change. We should at least bargain with the Chinese Government and move it along. The International Olympic Committee tried to do so and was given commitments, which were not delivered on. This is the kind of matter about which we must care. Twenty years have passed since I first raised the issue of Tibet in this House and I have raised it consistently ever since. I recall seconding a motion tabled by the then Senator Mary Robinson in this House, however long ago that was, on this issue.

Such issues define us as a State. We are proud of such institutions. I recall that after the Good Friday Agreement and the consequential establishment of the Human Rights Commission, we basked in the applause of Europe because as an island we were moving forward to deal with such issues. In this House, Members congratulated their former colleague, Senator Maurice Manning, on his appointment to head that organisation. I spoke to him and to his organisation recently and from memory, its budget has been reduced from €2.3 million to €1.4 million or €1.5 million. Because of the nature of the business in which I have been involved, I asked them a simple question, namely, how much of that budget was for salaries and how much did the commission have for its work. Its total budget will barely pay the salaries of its employees. Consequently, although it can perform work at that level, it cannot go beyond it, which is highly restrictive.

I chair Co-operation Ireland's parliamentary group in Leinster House and the matter that concerns its members more than anything else is the lack of depth in community activity and in peace activities. When people are not being killed, the world turns away and thinks all is well but this is far from being the case. I was in company last week, when the Uachtarán travelled to Belfast to visit the peace walls, and three people in that company asked what were peace walls. People do not realise that actual, and not metaphorical walls still are being built in Belfast to separate the Shankill Road from the Falls Road, as well as in other locations. People in the South think that everything is rosy in the garden up there. These issues are defined by the Good Friday Agreement and are hugely important to us. The Minister of State must ensure that the commission can continue in business. I will put it another way. Were Members to find out that human rights in the North were being compromised in some way by activities of a Unionist Government or Assembly, they would have searching questions to ask and would be unhappy about aspects of it. Such a balance also is necessary down here.

As I stated, such matters define us as a State. When one considers the weak and the vulnerable in society, what is important is how we give them voice, representation and their rights. All the organisations, authorities and commissions mentioned in the motion tabled by Senator Norris are conduits through which we do so. I view this development with a certain sense of sadness and poignancy. In the early or mid-1970s, I canvassed for the enactment of employment legislation and the Employment Equality Act finally was enacted in 1977. We then celebrated as it was a huge development of great importance. A couple of years later, in 1978 or 1979, I represented the first teacher to win a case under the equality legislation. Consequently, I have had a long association with this issue and watch it carefully. I admire the work of the Equality Authority. While I know it is an irritant, anything good in a democracy is an irritation. If it does not irritate or catch one's heels at some point, it is not doing its job.