Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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611. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the position regarding his Department's role in Ireland being a co-facilitator of the intergovernmental talks on the sustainable development goals; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34167/15]

Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Ireland’s appointment, with Kenya, to co-facilitate the negotiations at the UN for the new framework for global development reflected our standing in the United Nations and the reputation of our aid programme in fighting poverty and hunger in some of the poorest countries. Ireland had taken a leading role in the process of developing a framework for development to follow on from the Millennium Development Goals since our EU Presidency in 2013 The co-facilitators were tasked with brokering a consensus among all 193 member States of the UN on a new set of global goals to replace the MDGs. The 17 new Sustainable development Goals (SDGs) are at the heart of the final outcome, ‘Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’, which was adopted by the UN Summit in New York from 25 to 28 September. The Taoiseach led the Irish delegation on the opening day of the Summit and President Higgins and my colleague, Minister of State Sherlock, also participated. My Department and our Embassy network worldwide supporting the co-facilitation role in New York. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Department of Environment and Local Government co-chaired a whole-of-government coordination process to ensure a comprehensive Irish position throughout the process. The 2030 Agenda is the second of three major agreements that will be concluded this year and which, taken together, have the potential to deliver a truly transformative agenda that can end poverty and promote sustainable development. The first of these is the Addis Ababa Accord on the means of implementing the new SDGs which was agreed in July, and the third, the climate agreement, should be concluded in Paris in December.

The SDGs will guide the actions of all countries in their efforts to eradicate poverty and hunger and achieve sustainable development over the next fifteen years. While they are challenging and ambitious, we have been heartened by the level of commitment to their implementation expressed by world leaders at the Summit in New York.

I am determined that Ireland’s aid programme, which is central to our foreign policy, will continue to focus on ending poverty and hunger in the poorest countries in the world. The SDGs are universally applicable and all countries will have to take action. Like our EU partners, we will now focus on developing the most appropriate institutional framework to deliver the 2030 Agenda at home and abroad.