Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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164. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the issues discussed at his recent meeting with the UN Secretary General; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37534/14]

Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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In the course of my recent visit to New York for the General Assembly of the United Nations I had the opportunity to meet the Secretary General of the Organisation, His Excellency Ban Ki Moon. The Secretary General was accompanied by senior Irish staff from the United Nations Secretariat. Among the issues we discussed were UN peacekeeping, the current conflicts in the Middle East, the situation in Ukraine, climate change and the Ebola crisis. The Secretary General spoke warmly in praise of Ireland’s contribution to peace keeping efforts, particularly in difficult regions and welcomed Ireland’s initiative to provide training in peacekeeping to certain African States. He also expressed gratitude for Ireland’s contributions to the work of the UN in other areas.

I took the opportunity of the meeting to present the Secretary General with a copy of the UNICEF Ireland ‘Dublin Declaration on Children and Youth 2014’ and invited him to visit Ireland in 2015.