Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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99. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will report on the outcomes and achievements emanating from Ireland's Presidency of the Committee of Ministers at the Council of Europe; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [58341/22]

Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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100. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will report on Ireland's recently concluded Presidency at the Council of Europe; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [58353/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 99 and 100 together.

Ireland assumed the rotating Presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in May at a point of profound crisis on our continent and challenge for the organisation, as it responded to the invasion of Ukraine and consequent expulsion of the Russian Federation as a member state.

Within this context, our Presidency’s overarching goal was to renew what, as a founding member, Ireland has long held to be the ‘‘conscience of Europe’’, reaffirming the Council’s core role in advancing democracy, human rights and the rule of law, while ensuring its expertise was directed as effectively as possible in support of Ukraine.

Our Presidency set three thematic priorities: ‘Reinforcing Human Rights and the Protection of Civilians in Europe’; ‘Promoting Participatory Democracy and Youth Engagement’; and ‘Fostering a Europe of Welcome, Inclusion, and Diversity’. We advanced these through weekly meetings of the Committee of Ministers’ Deputies, multiple high-levels visits, and over forty different conferences, seminars, and roundtables in Strasbourg and across Ireland and Europe.

Ireland presided over several historic agreements across our term. These included: a new Dublin Declaration on tackling domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence; the establishment of a new Contact Group to engage with democratic forces in Belarus, led by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya; a European Declaration committing to renewed investment in Education for Global Citizenship and Human Rights; and Ukraine’s fast-tracked accession to the Council of Europe’s Development Bank, which was agreed at the first board meeting of an international financial institution ever to be held in Ireland.

As at the UN Security Council, we prioritised engaging civil society in Strasbourg. Our Presidency hosted the Committee of Ministers first formal meeting with LGBTI+ rights activists in June, as well as exchanges on such key issues as press safety, anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim racism, and environmental rights.

Reinforcing the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights which protects it was a particular focus for our Presidency. President Higgins, the Taoiseach, Minister Byrne and I all visited the Court during our term to underline that commitment, while Ireland also extended direct support for the Court as part of an overall voluntary contribution of just over €2 million. In the last weeks of our Presidency, we celebrated Judge Síofra O’Leary’s historic election as the Court’s first Irish and first female President.

Amongst the major achievements of our Presidency was to have initiated and led strategic reflections on the Council of Europe’s future. On assuming the chair of the Committee of Ministers in May, I supported the Council’s Secretary General in establishing an independent High Level Reflection Group of which our former President Mary Robinson was ultimately elected chair. Its recommendations, presented to the Committee of Ministers in October, provide a blueprint for institutional renewal and will shortly be complemented by a related review, prepared for the Council’s Parliamentary Assembly by Senator Fiona O’Loughlin, head of the Oireachtas’s delegation in Strasbourg.

Political investment will ultimately be key to delivering on these reports’ vision. In that context, in the final week of our term, I was delighted to secure agreement across the Council’s 46 member states to convening what will be just the fourth Summit in the organisation’s history in Reykjavik next May. That summit presents a critical opportunity to reinforce democracy, human rights and the rule of law across our continent and, I hope, will be a significant and enduring legacy of our Presidency term.