Skip to main content
Normal View

EU Meetings

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 May 2018

Tuesday, 15 May 2018

Questions (51, 79)

Niall Collins

Question:

51. Deputy Niall Collins asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will report on the efforts to obtain a seat at the UN Security Council for the 2021 to 2022 term; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21125/18]

View answer

Mary Lou McDonald

Question:

79. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the role he and his Department’s officials are playing in the State's bid to obtain a seat on the United Nations Security Council in 2021. [21284/18]

View answer

Written answers

I propose to take Questions Nos. 51 and 79 together. I propose to take questions 51 and 79 together.

I refer the Deputy to the answer delivered today to his priority question, Ref No: 21310-18.

Ireland is seeking election to a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council for the 2021-2022 term. We are one of three candidates for the two available seats in the Western Europe and Others Group regional group. The other two candidates are Canada and Norway which, like Ireland, have strong records of engagement at the UN.

In order to be elected to the Security Council, Ireland will need to obtain the support of two-thirds of the membership of the United Nations General Assembly – approximately 129 votes of the 193 Member States – at the election that will take place in June 2020. Our candidature was first announced in 2005 and the campaign has been building since then under successive Governments.

I am taking every opportunity to raise our candidature with representatives of Member States and to press the value of Ireland playing our role on the Council. The President met with a range of Member State representatives during his visit to the UN last month. The Taoiseach in his address to the Brookings Institute in Washington D.C. in March outlined the importance of an effective multilateral system to Ireland and small countries in general. I, along with all my Cabinet colleagues, will continue to make Ireland’s case in the period ahead. This political engagement is being underpinned by my Department’s diplomatic personnel.

In making Ireland’s case to the electorate, we are highlighting our consistent record at the UN throughout more than six decades of membership across a number of areas including peacekeeping, sustainable development, humanitarian action, disarmament and human rights.

If Ireland were to be elected to a non-permanent seat on the Security Council our fundamental approach to any agenda item would be to advocate for the core values of our foreign policy – peace and security, justice, equality and sustainability.

Top
Share