Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I thank the Senator.

I agree with the point in respect of our candidacy for membership of the UN Human Rights Council. It is obviously important that our human rights reputation is maintained. Senator Hayden and Senator van Turnhout referred to that. The worst way one can be about human rights is complacent. However, let us face it - we have a good record and reputation. The periodic review that was undertaken gave a very good assessment of our human rights situation, but it is something on which we must be constantly vigilant to ensure we provide a leadership role in that regard.

I expect that the Taoiseach will shortly make a statement on how we are proceeding with the constitutional convention. Obviously, that convention will have to consider a range of constitutional matters and the right to a home should be part of that consideration.

I note the points Senator van Turnhout made about the Indonesian citizen who was arrested. There are huge issues relating to Internet freedom. We see, for example, reports of people having to register before visiting Internet cafés in some countries, what they look at is watched and monitored and they are visited by the police if the material is subversive in the view of the authority in that country. That is one of the reasons that, as part of the OSCE exercise, we are convening an event in Dublin which will bring together not just member states of the OSCE but the industry itself. The fact that organisations such as Google, Facebook and Twitter are located in Dublin will give a local interest to that.

In response to Senator Barrett, what we are attempting to do in the area of trade promotion is to co-ordinate and bring together the entire national effort on trade promotion. We are giving a great deal of attention to the BRIC countries in various ways. As I mentioned earlier in respect of China, for example, there will be a number of exchange visits at very high level over the coming year and we expect there will be much discussion of trade issues during those. There are issues relating to language. The Minister for Education and Skills is very exercised about that and is working on it. He has some proposals in that area.

I am glad the Senator raised the issue of our relationship with the United Kingdom, not least because I did not touch on it specifically in my opening remarks. Our relationship with the United Kingdom and the issue of Northern Ireland remain a huge priority for the Government, particularly for my Department. We have an extensive level of engagement now through the North-South Ministerial Council, in the first place. I meet regularly with the First Minister, Mr. Robinson, the Deputy First Minister, Mr. McGuinness, and with the Secretary of State, Mr. Paterson. There is ongoing discussion. The fact that, happily, it is not newspaper headlines any more is probably a very good thing, but an amount of work is taking place all the time building on the North-South relationship and the relationship with the UK. It is significant progress that the bulk of our discussions now with the UK is in respect of matters other than Northern Ireland. It is on economic issues and the type of issues one would expect to be the normal issues that would be discussed between neighbouring states. As the Senator said, the relationship between Ireland and the UK is better now than it has been since the State was founded.

In response to Senator Reilly, the position regarding Iran is that Ireland supports what we call the dual track approach to Iran. As the Senator knows, the International Atomic Energy Agency has produced a report on Iran's nuclear programme in which it clearly expressed its concerns that the programme was moving towards the development of nuclear weapons. Now, the one thing we cannot have, particularly in a situation where we wish to reduce the amount of nuclear weaponry in the world, is another state developing the capacity to have a nuclear weapon. Ireland and the European Union wish to see Iran engage in serious discussions on those issues and to inform the international agency and the international community about its plans in respect of developing nuclear weaponry. Iran has been reluctant to do that, to put it mildly.

The threat to the stability of that region, to peace and to people's safety is very real. Therefore, the European Union Foreign Affairs Council and I participated in and supported the decision on behalf of Ireland, decided at its last meeting on last Monday week to impose sanctions on Iran, including an embargo on the importation of oil to the European Union from Iran. Those sanctions will kick in next July. There will be a lead-in period before that happens. As I said at the time, this decision is not without cost. It will have implications for the price of oil. An economic cost is associated with this. There is no doubt that there is real concern in the Middle East about Iran's intentions. That struck me forcibly during my visit to the region last weekend. I think the decision the EU has taken will be helpful. I hope it encourages Iran to come to the table to discuss its intentions with regard to its nuclear programme. I hope it will help to ensure additional states do not develop nuclear weapons. It might also encourage those states that have such weapons to get rid of them.