Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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171. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if his attention has been drawn to the number of countries that have defaulted on their payment commitments to the UN; and the approximate sum owed in tabular form. [28960/21]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Charter of the United Nations foresees that each Member State of the United Nations will contribute to the costs of running the organisation, generally referred to as UN budget contributions.

Contributions are apportioned based on a scale of assessment designed to reflect the capacity of Member States to pay. At present, Ireland’s scale of assessment is 0.371% of the overall UN Budget. In 2020, Ireland paid just over €30 million in contributions to the UN budget, which includes funding to the UN Regular Budget, UN Peacekeeping Missions and UN Tribunals.

The most recent report from the Secretary General of the United Nations on the financial situation of the United Nations was published in May 2021 (UN documents reference A/75/387/Add.1). In this report, Ireland is listed as one of fifty countries that have paid all assessments that were due and payable at the time of reporting. The report indicates that by the end of 2020, a total of 144 Member States had paid their regular budget assessments in full. As at 31 December 2020, 47 Member States had paid all peacekeeping assessments due and payable.

Article 19 of the UN Charter includes a facility for the loss of voting rights for countries who fall into arrears in the payments of financial contributions to the United Nations. A Member State is considered to have fallen into arrears when it has not paid an amount that equals or exceeds the contributions due for two preceding years. Member States may continue to vote, if the General Assembly is satisfied that non-payment is due to conditions beyond the control of the Member. Information on States in arrears was provided by the UN Secretary General in a letter to the President of the General Assembly in January 2021 (UN Documents Reference A/75/661). This document provided the following information with regard to countries in arrears with payments at that time:

As of 21 May 2021, only five UN Member States were subject to the provisions of Article 19 of the UN Charter. Three of these Member States have been permitted to retain their vote, as they were able to show that conditions beyond their control contributed to this inability to pay.

It is critically important the United Nations remain fully funded. Ireland encourages all Member States to pay their assessed amount in full and in a timely manner.