Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party)
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782. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade his views on reform of the United Nations Security Council, following discussions with Chinese officials on 17 May 2015. [20474/15]

Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Ireland is an active participant in the ongoing intergovernmental negotiations on UN Security Council reform and we are always interested in hearing the views of other UN Member States, such as China, on this issue. The world has changed a great deal in the 70 years since the UN’s foundation, and we recognise that UN structures must change to reflect this. We believe that the Security Council must be expanded to better reflect these new realities in a regionally balanced way, and to redress the serious under-representation of some regions such as Africa. Equally however, in any reform of the composition of the Security Council, Ireland would want to prevent any diminution in the capacity of smaller Member States, such as Ireland, to serve as non-permanent members on a rotating basis and at regular intervals.

Ireland would oppose the conferral of veto powers on any new Members. Like many other States, we believe that extending the veto right to additional members of the Council would only compound the difficulties associated with the current arrangements regarding veto rights. Ideally, Ireland would wish to see the veto rights of the five permanent members of the Security Council ended altogether, but if this is not possible we see merit in initiatives to regulate the use of the veto.

Ireland sees the five elements for Security Council reform as inter-related parts of a single package [categories of membership, the question of the veto, regional representation, size of an enlarged Council and working methods of the Council, and the relationship between the Council and the General Assembly]. Successful reform is contingent on agreement in all five areas.

We recognise that the bar to agreement on Security Council reform is high. Any amendment to the UN Charter, to give effect to Security Council Reform, would require the approval of two-thirds of the membership of the UN, including all five permanent members of the Security Council. Equally, for reforms to be durable they must enjoy the widest possible support. We would like to think that Member States will be open to compromise in the interest of obtaining overall agreement.

Finally, while full reform of the Council’s composition may be some way off, Ireland believes that the working methods of the Council in its current from can be improved. Through our membership of the Accountability, Coherence and Transparency (ACT) group of states, we advocate for a more transparent, efficient, inclusive, coherent, legitimate and accountable Security Council.