Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leader for arranging the debate today on the participation by Irish Defence Forces personnel in the UNDOF mission on the Golan Heights. I am pleased that we will have the Minister in the House. I have just come from a meeting of the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality, at which the Minister for Defence, Deputy Coveney, briefed members on the participation of Irish Defence Forces personnel in the Golan Heights mission. I wish to add my voice to the voices of others in commending those in the Irish forces, who only returned late last night from their six-month tour of duty, who were responsible for extremely brave and heroic actions in August. They assisted in the safe extraction of 58 members of the Philippine battalion who had been attacked by rebels and, on 30 August, they extracted 35 Filipino troops from a position surrounded by rebels. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, went into considerable detail with the committee on the circumstances of the rescue of the Filipino troops. All of us should commend the 44th Battalion, which was involved in those rescues. Moreover, we should all send our best wishes to the members of the 46th Infantry group who were sent out at 6.30 a.m. yesterday morning for a further six-month tour of duty following a review of the mission by the Minister, Deputy Coveney, and at UN level. There is major concern about the escalation of tensions in the area.

We had a good debate last night on the Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) (Amendment) Bill. In the course of the debate we discussed briefly the situation in Syria, particularly the appalling circumstances of the siege of the town of Kobani, which, it appears, may fall to the rebels from ISIS, or the Islamic State group. We spoke about the barbarism and brutality of the people in that group and the need for those of us in Europe to ensure we take steps to prevent the recruitment of foreign fighters by these groups in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere. I thank the Leader for arranging that debate.

I call on the Leader to arrange a debate in future on an Amnesty International report published today - I attended the launch earlier - on economic, social and cultural rights. The report, Bringing ESC Rights Home, examines at how economic, social and cultural, ESC, rights and obligations may be applied to budgetary policy and recommends that the Government establish a minimum level of protection for all ESC rights. We had a good debate on ESC rights at the Constitutional Convention. On foot of that debate there was a strong majority recommendation from the convention that the Government should give constitutional protection to ESC rights. The report from Amnesty International is part of a process of seeking to ensure greater protection for these rights.

In advance of next week's budget the ESRI has also recommended that we should see investment by the Government in social housing, given the strong growth figures for this year and predicted for next year. I ask the Leader that we might have a debate broadly on ESC rights, on the Amnesty report, and indeed on the report of the Constitutional Convention.