Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will address the issue of medicines, supposedly being exempt from the sanctions imposed on Iran, but prevented from getting into Iran because of banking sanctions, an issue causing considerable difficulties for the civilian population; if he will pursue this as a breach of human rights and through his place on U.N. Human Rights Council; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5954/13]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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There are no sanctions on the provision of medicines or humanitarian goods, or indeed on the great majority of normal commercial goods, to Iran. Sanctions have been placed on some Iranian financial institutions because of their involvement in supporting the nuclear and military programmes, or their involvement in evading sanctions or money-laundering. While this has meant some inconvenience for non-sanctioned commerce, there are specific exemptions in place in the financial sanctions in both the EU and the US for transactions relating to medicines. There have been anecdotal reports in some media about possible shortages of some medicines in Iran. I would indeed be deeply concerned if I felt this was due to sanctions, but no real grounds have been advanced for concluding thus. There has been, and continues to be, considerable discussion and work within the EU on monitoring and fine-tuning the sanctions to ensure this does not occur, and both in the EU and the US the details of sanctions and controls have been adjusted to avoid possible problems which were foreseen. This process will continue, and Ireland will continue to play an active role in these discussions, based on ensuring that all legitimate trade with Iran is facilitated and all necessary humanitarian exemptions are provided.

There are a number of very important points which also need to be remembered in relation to this issue. The sole purpose of sanctions is to persuade Iran to negotiate seriously on the issues of concern in relation to its nuclear programme. It is open to Iran to do so at any time.

Iran has simply refused to respond seriously to either the international community or the IAEA despite nine years of efforts to engage with them diplomatically.

Sanctions have been slowly and reluctantly applied as a result of this intransigence. Their aim is to avoid a possible nuclear arms race in the Middle East, or actual warfare aimed at preventing this. The motivation for the sanctions thus could not be higher.

Shortages of medicines or other goods in Iran, which are attributed to sanctions, may also be due to the collapse in value of the Rial, which is itself more likely due to long term economic mismanagement, or to the priority given by the Iranian Government to continued massive military and nuclear expenditure.

Iran continues even now to devote enormous resources to a secret nuclear programme and the massive enrichment and stockpiling of uranium for which it has no civilian use and which returns no revenue whatever to Iran.