Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 108: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the progress that has been made on the agenda for reform of the United Nations, which was initiated by the previous Secretary General Mr. Kofi Anan. [38365/08]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The UN World Summit held in September 2005 agreed a package of UN reforms which, while not as complete as might have been hoped, represented an important advance. Work to implement these reforms has been proceeding since then on a number of levels.

As part of this reform, Ireland has been playing a leading role in the effort to reform the mechanisms through which the UN provides assistance to the developing world. The basis for this reform is the recommendations of the High Level Panel on System-wide Coherence. Essentially, these are proposals to improve the UN's internal coherence and its delivery of development assistance.

The Panel reported in late 2006 and its proposals mainly centre on the development of a unified UN presence at country level, i.e. that all UN agencies in a country would operate from a single office, with one leader, one programme and one budget. The core objective is to improve the delivery of aid by the UN in developing countries. Since the publication of the Panel report, pilot programmes have been established in eight countries, including in three Irish Aid priority countries — Vietnam, Tanzania and Mozambique.

The Irish Permanent Representative to the UN in New York, Ambassador Paul Kavanagh, together with the Tanzanian Permanent Representative, was appointed in January 2008 by the former President of the General Assembly to lead consideration of the recommendations of the Panel. They submitted a joint Co-Chairs' report to the President of the General Assembly in July 2008.

On 15 September 2008, the General Assembly adopted by consensus a Resolution on "System-wide Coherence" which welcomed the Co-Chairs' report and agreed to move forward on the four priority areas identified in their report:

(i) 'Delivering as One' at country level, with the related aspect of Harmonisation of Business Practices; (ii) Funding; (iii) Governance; and (iv) Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.

As regards reform of the Security Council, 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.

Following extensive consultations, the previous President of the General Assembly brokered a deal on 15 September this year, which provides for intergovernmental negotiations on Security Council reform to commence at an informal plenary of the General Assembly. On 13 October, the President of the General Assembly announced that these negotiations will begin on 21 November.

I believe that the decision to set a date for opening of intergovernmental negotiations represents genuine progress on the matter.

Discussions are also continuing on the important issue of management reform. Despite progress in a number of areas, there remains much more to be done, particularly in relation to planning and budgetary processes and human resources management.