Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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240. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she will outline each international organisation, international agency or international body that Ireland is a member of that her Department or a State body or agency under the aegis of her Department is responsible for or co-responsible for; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32805/13]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) operates in a global context and framework, provided primarily through its membership of the United Nations, the European Union and the Council of Europe. International human rights norms ratified by Ireland, in particular the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and The Hague Convention on Adoption, provide a framework for domestic policy and practice relating to children’s rights. For example, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child spells out the basic human rights to which children everywhere are entitled, including the right to survival, the right to the development of their full physical and mental potential, the right to protection from influences that are harmful to their development, and the right to participation in family, cultural and social life. In order to meet our external obligations a priority activity between 2012 and 2014 is to ensure that arrangements are in place to support the DCYA to meet its external obligations in relation to children and youth.

My Department had a leadership role in progressing the work of the EU in the youth field during Ireland's Presidency of the EU from January to June 2013. My Department chaired the Youth Working Party comprising officials of member states which prepares the work for the meetings of the Council of Ministers. I chaired the meeting of Youth ministers on 16th May, 2013 as part of the Council of Ministers for Education, Youth, Culture and Sport. My Department also hosted two important flagship events, the EU youth Conference which took place in March in Dublin and an EU Round Table Expert meeting which explored the contribution of youth work to youth employment, this took place in Castletown House on 20th and 21st June, 2013. Other primary international bodies with which the Department of Children and Youth Affairs is linked are: the European Commission, the Council of Europe, Child One Europe and the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child.