Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 90: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the initiatives he has taken since 2004 to assist and encourage reform of the UN Security Council; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29332/07]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I acted as one of the previous Secretary-General's five Special Envoys in the preparation of the UN 2005 World Summit. At the Summit, world leaders reaffirmed the primary responsibility of the Security Council for the maintenance of international peace and security, and despite the absence of agreement on the various models advanced, they unanimously supported the principle of its early reform. The General Assembly was asked to review progress by the end of 2005. In November 2005, a debate in the General Assembly reconfirmed widespread agreement both that there is a need to expand the Security Council with a view to making it more broadly representative and that enlargement of the Council's membership should contribute to its efficiency and effectiveness. However, the debate also showed widely divergent views concerning the size of the Council and the categories of its expanded membership, highlighting the difficulty of finding an agreed way forward.

Ireland's view is that a more representative, efficient and transparent Security Council is an essential aspect of reforming the UN to meet the many global challenges which we face. Our approach is based on the following key principles: The Security Council should be increased in size to reflect the realities of the twenty-first century; That increase should be regionally balanced, including enhancing the role of Africa; Any change should not lessen the capacity of smaller Member States, like Ireland, to continue to aspire to membership from time to time; While we would ideally wish to see the complete removal of the veto, there should be no conferral of new veto powers. An expanded Security Council should accommodate member states that play a particularly significant role in the UN system, for instance financially, in peacekeeping or through their capacity for regional leadership.

Regrettably, wide differences of view among the UN membership have meant that little progress has been made on the issue in the period since 2005. In an effort to reinvigorate the debate, facilitators were appointed last February by the then President of the General Assembly to carry out consultations on Security Council reform. The facilitators concluded that it was not possible at this stage to find an agreement which would reconcile the positions of all the different parties. Instead, they flagged the possibility of a transitional approach, with an interim arrangement which would be subject to review in the future. They suggested various possibilities for an interim arrangement such as a new category of re-electable seats with an extended term.

In May, the facilitators' report was discussed by an informal meeting of the General Assembly, and in September, the Assembly adopted a report by its outgoing President, which included the earlier findings. At a debate of the General Assembly on 12 November, the new President, Ambassador Kerim of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, stressed the need to build on this work and agree the elements that could form a basis for intergovernmental negotiations with a view to achieving concrete results during the session.

Ireland regrets the lack of progress to date on this critical issue. We welcome the efforts by the President of the General Assembly to reinvigorate the debate and we look forward to participating actively in future discussions of the issue, on the basis of the principles set out above, once the President has outlined the next steps in the process.