Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
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203. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will provide an update on Ireland's role in negotiations in the post-2015 development agenda; the key areas Ireland will focus on; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15258/15]

Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Ireland is co-facilitating intergovernmental negotiations at the United Nations to agree a framework for global development to succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) after 2015. The new sustainable development agenda should be adopted in New York in September. It will involve a new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which will complete the work of the MDGs on the eradication of extreme poverty and will also put sustainable development at the core. The SDGs will be universal in nature and address development challenges through social, environmental and economic actions in low, middle and high-income countries alike. They will address a wide range of areas including MDG priorities such as food and nutrition, but also broader challenges, including on climate, sustainable production and consumption, trade and global governance structures, and peace and governance.

Ireland’s key priorities for the post-2015 Development Agenda have been the fight to end hunger and under nutrition, gender equality and women’s empowerment, and good governance and rule of law. These priorities are drawn from Ireland’s Policy for International Development ‘One World, One Future’ and the priorities set out following the Foreign Policy Review, in ‘The Global Island’. Ireland’s positions in the UN negotiations and in the relevant EU coordination are agreed through a whole-of-Government coordination process involving all relevant Government Departments. We have advocated for strong goals and targets in each of these key areas, and we have emphasised the need to incorporate human rights in the new development framework, reduce global inequality and protect the role of civil society.

The fourth session of the intergovernmental negotiations will take place in New York from 20 to 24 April.