Dan Boyle
Ceist:238 Mr. Boyle asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the recent proposals which have been made by the Government on reforms needed on decision making procedures at the United Nations Security Council. [16926/03]
Written Answers. - United Nations Security Council.
Reform of the Security Council is one of the more contentious issues facing the UN membership. In the 1993, the General Assembly, with a view to addressing this issue in a comprehensive way, decided to establish a working group, open to all UN member states.
The working group has been meeting regularly in New York since 1993, with Ireland as an active participant, but it has to be said that progress to date on this very complex issue has been disappointing. The key issues are the enlargement of the Council, the reform of its working methods, and the manner in which it reaches its decisions, including the use of the veto. While there has been some progress in the reform of the Council's working methods, there has been none on either enlargement or the decision-making process.
As regards enlargement, Ireland's overall position is to support a small, regionally balanced increase in both the permanent and the elected membership that would bring Security Council membership to between 20 and 25. Ireland believes that this should not be achieved at the expense of the smaller member states.
As regards decision-making, Ireland would like to see the use of the veto by the permanent members eliminated altogether. The Government recognises, however, the strong opposition of the permanent members and, in a spirit of realism and practicality, has proposed that they accept a limitation of the veto whereby they would exercise it only when the question at hand was one of vital importance, taking into account the interest of the United Nations as a whole. At the same time, any new permanent members of the Council would commit themselves not to exercise the veto.
The working group continues to meet and Ireland has been active in working for consensus on the basis of our principled position. The Government remain open to any opportunity that might arise for making proposals, procedural or substantive. Any such proposal would need to be weighed very carefully, so as to be assured of contributing to progress in the negotiation. This matter will accordingly remain under appropriate review.