Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 314: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if his attention has been drawn to the fact that US sanctions imposed on Cuba are preventing donations to fund Cuban medical teams (details supplied) working in Haiti from reaching them; and the steps he will take to remove this block on donations reaching front-line medical teams who have been in Cuba since before the recent earthquake in Haiti. [8887/10]

Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 317: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will call on the US Ambassador to ask the US Treasury Department to make an exception for US banks and financial institutions to allow them transfer funds to a specified account in Cuba (details supplied) established to receive international funds to support the work of the Cuban medical teams inside Haiti. [9065/10]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I propose to take Questions Nos. 314 and 317 together.

As the Deputies are aware, there has been a United States embargo on Cuba since 1962. Among the measures applied on foot of this embargo is a ban on the transfer of funds to Cuba involving United States financial institutions. The EU has a longstanding position on the US embargo, most recently expressed in the EU Presidency statement on 28 October 2009 during the debate in the General Assembly on the resolution on the " Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba". In this statement, the EU said that while it believed that the United States' trade policy towards Cuba is fundamentally a bilateral issue, American legislation such as the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992 and the Helms-Burton Act of 1996 had extended the effects of the US' embargo to third-party countries. As a matter of principle the European Union firmly and continuously opposes such extraterritorial measures and rejects all unilateral measures directed against Cuba that are contrary to commonly accepted rules of international trade.

In relation to the question of transfer of funds in support of Cuban medical teams, I understand that Irish groups involved in coordinating the collection of donations have made alternative arrangements for their transfer.

Finally, I commend the swift and effective response by Cuba to the devastating earthquake in neighbouring Haiti.