I welcome members to our meeting of the Sub-Committee on Human Rights. Are the minutes of 31 March agreed? Agreed. Are there any matters arising?
Apologies have been received from Deputy Michael Noonan.
I take this opportunity to raise another matter, which has been raised at other meetings, that of, Sharon Cummins, a constituent of mine, who was abducted in Darfur. I acknowledge that much good work is being undertaken by the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Sudanese authorities. From speaking with the Sudanese ambassador yesterday it appears there are strong leads and that good progress is being made in identifying the location where Sharon is being held. We are not out of the woods yet. When tribal chiefs abduct such people one is always on thin ice. I would like to think given the amount of good work and effort put in by governments and politicians and, most important, by officials, who have experience of this type of situation and have been somewhat successful in the past, that it will result in the safe and early release of Sharon Cummins. We wish them well and hope there will be good news on that issue, as the ambassador put it yesterday, within "hours", but then he went to say within "days" but I hope it will happen quickly. Our thoughts go out to all Sharon's GOAL colleagues, including, in particular, Hilda, who is held captive with her, and all others working in that arena who put themselves at risk and the Cummins family who are greatly concerned. I hope there will be good news for all of us very soon.
I remind members and those in the public gallery to ensure their mobile telephones and BlackBerrys are switched off completely as they interfere with the recording equipment. The minutes of our previous meeting have been circulated and are agreed.
We received correspondence, dated 25 June, to me from the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Martin, in response to my letter regarding the Baha'is in Iran. If members agree we can deal with this issue during the course of the meeting. Is that agreed? Agreed. An e-mail was received from Senator Norris and, again, I suggest that this be dealt with during the meeting. Is that agreed? Agreed.
I propose to note the press cuttings and articles that have been circulated for the information of members. In this regard, I refer in particular to an article which appeared in The Irish Times on 20 April under the headline “New human rights plans for gardaí”.