Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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63. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the Government's position regarding Rwandan President Paul Kagame and UN allegations regarding his involvement in Congo. [16107/14]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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The Democratic Republic of Congo continues to face one of the most complex and enduring humanitarian crises in the world. Ongoing conflict, human rights violations and gender-based violence in the east of the country continue to displace hundreds of thousands of people internally and across borders into neighbouring countries. It is vital to counter and deal with all destabilising forces in the region, that regional Governments, including the Government of Rwanda, cooperate with the United Nations on this and play a positive role in searching for peace and stability. Central to this is the process of reconciliation, justice for the perpetrators of human rights abuses and peace building, so that the myriad development needs of the people in eastern DRC can be met.

The EU pursues a comprehensive approach to the DRC and Great Lakes region encompassing political, security, development and humanitarian response. The main focus of the EU's political engagement is supporting the implementation of the Framework Agreement for Peace, Security and Cooperation in the Great Lakes Region which was signed in Addis Ababa on 24 February 2013. The signatories of the Framework Agreement are the DRC and its 10 neighbours, including Rwanda.

Former President Mary Robinson was appointed on 18 March 2013 as the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary General for the Great Lakes region of Africa and her role is to coordinate and assess the implementation of national and regional commitments under the Framework Agreement. Ireland is committed to supporting this work and in December 2013, Ireland contributed €300,000 to the UN Trust Fund in support of the Office of the Special Envoy. We are also actively considering support for the Women’s Platform for the peace process in the Great Lakes Region which is under the guidance of Special Envoy Robinson.

Since 2009, Ireland has provided €44.6 million in response to the crisis in the DRC. In 2013 alone, Ireland provided over €5.5 million in humanitarian funding to the DRC - €3.8 million was provided to the Common Humanitarian Fund for the DRC, while the remaining €1.8 million was allocated to NGO partners.