Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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Question 85: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if the Government has added its voice to the international condemnation of the Japanese whaling fleet that set out to the southern seas to hunt fin whales and humpback whales which are an endangered species; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31750/07]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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Ireland has consistently opposed Japan's scientific whaling programme both at meetings of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and through direct diplomatic contact. This matter was debated at the most recent annual meeting of the IWC in Alaska in May 2007. At the meeting, a resolution was passed calling on Japan, inter alia, to suspend the lethal aspects of its scientific whaling programme indefinitely, with Ireland being one of 40 countries voting in favour of this resolution. As indicated above, we have also made clear our opposition bilaterally on numerous occasions to the Japanese Government, most recently at a meeting which I had in Tokyo yesterday with the Japanese Foreign Minister, Mr. Masahiko Koumura.