Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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Question 101: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will outline his recent attendance at the United Nations General Assembly; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36122/10]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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A major event marking the opening of this year's General Assembly session was the High Level Summit meeting on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) convened by Secretary General Ban and which took place from 20-22 September. I was honoured to head the Irish Delegation to this important event and to deliver Ireland's statement to the Summit on 21 September in which I restated Ireland's continued commitment to the achievement of the Goals, emphasising in particular the challenge of addressing hunger. Also on 21 September, as part of the events of the wider MDG Summit, I co-hosted with Hillary Rodham Clinton, the US Secretary of State, an important meeting of international leaders to address world hunger and undernutrition. The meeting was attended and addressed by Secretary General Ban as well as ministers from a number of developing and donor countries, by the Heads of several UN agencies including World Food Programme, the World Health Organisation and UNICEF, and by civil society and private sector representatives. The event, entitled 1,000 Days and which focused on the danger posed by under-nutrition to children under two years old, was very successful in highlighting the need for more effective and concerted international action in this area as part of the drive to achieve the Millennium Development Goals while also providing an excellent example of the strong and effective cooperation which now exists between Ireland and the US in combating global poverty and hunger.

As part of ongoing work by Ireland to progress the international disarmament agenda, I participated in a Ministerial Meeting of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty on 23 September and in a High Level Meeting convened by the UN Secretary-General on 24 September, to examine how the work of the Conference on Disarmament and the global disarmament machinery in general could be revitalised.

Together with my EU counterparts, I participated in EU Ministerial meetings with both US Secretary of State Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov. Both meetings provided important opportunities for exchanges with these two key strategic partners of the EU.

As is also customary during the UNGA Ministerial Week, I availed of the opportunity to conduct a round of bilateral meetings with a number of foreign ministers of other countries, including the foreign ministers of Australia, Turkey, Egypt, Serbia, Croatia, and New Zealand as well as the Secretary General of the Arab League.

The focus of my visit to New York was not exclusively on UN matters but also provided me with a useful opportunity to engage in economic promotional work and also to meet local Irish community representatives in New York and Philadelphia. I carried out a number of engagements with business leaders, including the Irish American Leadership Council in New York and the Irish American Business Chamber in Philadelphia and also undertook a number of interviews with major US media, including Bloomberg, Fox Business channel and the New York Times, in which I briefed on the measures the Government is taking to meet the current economic challenges. I was also pleased during my visit to join with those taking part in the first annual Irish Theatre Festival in New York in celebrating and promoting Irish culture.