Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 385: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the update on efforts towards the reunification of Cyprus; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19331/05]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The United Nations has the lead role in the search for a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem. However, the EU enlargement process provided the impetus for the most recent efforts towards a settlement which were undertaken by the UN Secretary General in the first half of 2004, during Ireland's Presidency of the EU.

As a result of the referenda in Cyprus on 24 April 2004, the accession to the EU of a united Cyprus on 1 May 2004 was not possible. On 28 May, the UN Secretary General submitted a comprehensive report to the Security Council on his mission of good offices. He noted that the unsuccessful outcome represented another missed opportunity to resolve the Cyprus problem and concluded that there was no apparent basis for resuming the good offices effort while the stalemate continued. The process has remained under consideration in the UN Security Council since.

In his latest report on the United Nations peacekeeping force in Cyprus, on 27 May 2005, the Secretary General concluded that he was not yet ready to appoint a new full-time representative for his good offices mission on Cyprus. However, there have been some developments in recent weeks. Following discussions with the Secretary General in Moscow in May, the President of Cyprus, Tassos Papadopoulos, sent an envoy to New York for preliminary, informal talks with senior officials in the UN secretariat. As a result of these discussions, the Secretary General asked Kieran Prendergast, Under Secretary General for Political Affairs, to travel to Cyprus, Athens and Ankara during the first week of June to listen to the views of all parties on the future of his mission of good offices and to assess the situation on the ground. He will report back to the Security Council in the coming weeks. The Secretary General will then decide whether a further effort will be possible in the search for a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem.

The Government has strongly supported the UN Secretary General in his mission of good offices. The EU remains ready to accommodate a settlement of the Cyprus problem based on the Secretary General's proposals and in line with the principles on which the Union is founded. The objective we all share is an agreed comprehensive settlement which will enable the people of Cyprus to live together as citizens of a united Cyprus in the European Union. I hope that in the coming months all parties will continue to engage constructively with the United Nations to create the conditions in which real progress can be made towards the achievement of that objective.