Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Question 791: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the situation in relation to international discussions on the protection of whales; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22038/05]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Ireland has been a contracting Government to the International Convention on the Regulation of Whaling since 1985. The provisions of the convention are overseen by the International Whaling Commission which met last week in Ulsan in the Republic of Korea. Ireland was represented at the meeting and maintained its position of promoting the conservation of whale stocks around the globe and opposing any lifting of the 1986 ban on commercial whaling. In particular, Ireland supported the rejection by the IWC of a proposal by Japan to immediately lift the ban on commercial whaling.