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

110. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will make decent work a priority of his Department in the post-2015 development agenda; his views on the remarks made by Mr Colin Wrafter at the Joint Committee for Foreign Affairs and Trade recently that decent work is a human right (UD, Article 23); if he supports the new Asia floor wage; and if he will promote this right in Africa, as the focus of so much of Ireland's aid and trade policies, where there is both accelerating industrialisation and intensive agriculture; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48871/13]

Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Under Ireland's new policy for International Development – One World, One Future, the Government is committed to ensuring that economic development is compatible with human rights, including the right to decent work and our engagement in this area will be informed by, among other international standards, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Ireland has been a consistent and strong supporter of the decent work agenda globally. And we have funded programmes related to this agenda in Asia and Africa for years. Since 2001 Ireland has had a partnership programme with the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Irish Aid support to the ILO has focused on providing greater opportunities for people in developing countries to secure decent employment and incomes. This programme has contributed substantially to livelihood improvement and poverty reduction, knowledge sharing and capacity development as well as influencing the development of workplace and employment policy. The programme has yielded encouraging results in a number of Irish Aid Key Partner Countries in Africa, such as building the capacity of National Labour Inspectorates, which has been supported through the programme in Zambia.

The right to decent work is among the key challenges which are informing on-going discussions on the Post-2015 Development Framework. Ireland has been and it will continue to be actively engaged in driving the post-2015 agenda, including through our participation in the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals, where there have been very constructive discussions to date on the challenge of creating decent jobs to employ all those seeking work in developed and developing countries.

At the September UN High Level Event MDG Review, which the Tánaiste and I attended, global leaders launched a process of intergovernmental negotiations which will lead to the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda. Ireland will continue to engage actively in the process with a major focus on addressing issues of equality, social inclusion, decent work and the challenges of environmental sustainability and poverty eradication.