Ireland joined UNESCO in 1961 and UNESCO is the United Nations educational, scientific and cultural organisation. Its function is to contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration among the nations through education, science and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed for the peoples of the world without distinction of race, sex, language or religion by the charter of the United Nations.
Given our history, tradition and interest in education, science and culture and our contribution to education in the developing world, UNESCO is a body in which we should have a special interest. The importance of UNESCO was well illustrated in the past week when the Pope, on his visit to France, devoted the whole of one of his addresses towards UNESCO personnel. It was clear from what he said in that address that he regards the role that UNESCO play as one of the utmost importance. I have worked with, not under, UNESCO in the development of universities in Africa. The project in which I was representing the international Mathematical Union was successful and resulted in the formation of a mathematical organisation in Africa to stimulate the study of mathematics in African universities right through the continent and the formation of an institute funded by UNESCO with a branch in Nice in France and a branch in Africa to stimulate, co-ordinate and develop mathematics in Africa. That is only one small illustration of what UNESCO does. It is a body to which we should have a major input and from which this country should derive major benefits.
The link between Ireland and UNESCO is the Irish National Commission for UNESCO, and this is the channel through which information from UNESCO should flow to us, through which the benefits of membership of UNESCO should accrue and through which we should make our input to that important organisation. The national commission is supposed to act as the centre to which the national intellectual resources can be associated with the work of the organisation, thus assuring their participation in evaluation of UNESCO's programme as well as international intellectual co-operation.
The reason I raised this matter on the Adjournment is that I feel we have failed to take advantage of our membership of UNESCO and have failed to realise the importance to this country of UNESCO. We have failed to realise how important a role Ireland can play in UNESCO and in the development of its activities, and we have failed to make an impact on the workings of that organisation. That failure is fairly and squarely our own fault. It can be put down to a great extent to the failure of the national commission to set to work in the appropriate way and in the correct spirit.
I wish to refer to the composition of this body. There are representatives from a range of organisations, but the obvious body to me to be asked to nominate to the national commission for UNESCO is the Royal Irish Academy, which is our senior academic body and which fulfils the sort of functions in relation to the other international organisations that this commission is fulfilling, or supposedly fulfilling, vis-a-vis UNESCO. The national scientific organisations have adhering committees in Ireland which are sub-committees of the academy. The academy, more than any other body, is fitted to make an input as our senior educational, scientific and cultural organisation and it should be represented. However, that is a small point. My main contention is that the commission as a whole has failed to make an impact. It has failed in its duty to make sure that there is a specific Irish input to UNESCO and it has failed to ensure that we acquire the benefits from that organisation, and that really reflects the fact that we have not treated membership of UNESCO sufficiently seriously.
The function of the Government is to provide for the servicing of the national commission and to provide the premises and the financial resources necessary to allow the commission to carry out its functions. The Department of Education undertakes this task. It provides servicing for the commission, a certain membership for it and the resources with which the commission is supposed to operate. So few people have ever heard of this commission or ever realised what the commission is about or is supposed to be doing, that one must question whether really anything at all has been achieved by our national commission. It is of some interest that every Senator I spoke to about this or who asked me what I was raising on the adjournment this evening asked me what was the national commission for UNESCO. They all heard of UNESCO but they had never heard of our national commission. There has been a failure to provide information about the activities of UNESCO in this country. The national commission is the channel through which this information should be disseminated to the public. What UNESCO is doing is of great interest to the public and of particular relevance.
Given our tradition and given our involvement in the developing world, UNESCO is one of the bodies that is doing the most. It is the international body that is placed and designed to assist in educational development, particularly in the Third World. It does not restrict its activities to the Third World by any means. There should be a considerable interest in what UNESCO is doing and yet we never find any publicity in the media or any information coming through about its activities. It is a closed book as far as the Irish are concerned, and that is the fault of the national commission.
To illustrate the failure to appreciate what UNESCO is about on the commission's behalf, I refer to an important questionnaire sent out to all the national commissions of the adhering countries. This questionnaire was sent out in April 1978 and in October 1978 the replies to it were collated and the report was circulated to the member countries. The questionnaire was precisely on the topic which I am discussing: the organisation, structure, composition, role and activities of national commissions for UNESCO in the various countries. It was asking the national commission to report on its activities. Perhaps, because we did not have many activities to report on, Ireland was not one of the 85 countries that replied to the questionnaire. The countries that replied were Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Chile, Columbia, Congo and so on but Ireland significantly is not in the list of the 85 countries. The commission has a reputation for not replying to correspondence. It attends the annual UNESCO conference but the input is minimal. I made some inquiries among members of the present commission who have recently been appointed and one of them told me that the philosophy that the civil servants who were in charge of the delegation impressed on him was "when in doubt say nothing". If one takes that attitude to international organisations, we will not get anywhere. What I am asking the Minister to do—I am not blaming him for this failing, I am just pointing it out—is to take steps to change our attitude and import an entrepreneurial spirit into the workings of this commission. He should upgrade our approach to UNESCO through the national commission and see that, first of all, we get the information and documentation necessary for us to appreciate what UNESCO is doing so that, from our considerable educational and cultural resources, we can make a proper input to UNESCO, which we are not doing at present.
Organisations such as UNESCO, FAO and the World Health Organisation are of tremendous importance because they are non-political in a sense in which the United Nations, of course, is not. They are not forums for great political debate. Political issues do colour their discussions but they are basically organisations with non-political aims. In the case of UNESCO its aims and functions are so much in line with the tradition of which this country is proud—a missionary tradition and a tradition of education in the less privileged areas of the world—that it is a great pity that we do not play a vital role in ensuring that this important work goes on and ensuring our views and specific expertise is known, appreciated and used and is at the service of UNESCO. Only in that way will we get the benefits that accrue. I know, having been a member of one of those international organisations, that it is much better to get up and say something in which one is taking a bit of a chance than to have the poor mouth approach. If one does not get up and take a chance nobody will know anything about one or realise that one has a particular contribution. As we have such a tremendous contribution to make to an organisation like UNESCO, I appeal to the Minister to change the attitude and operations of the national commission and ensure that we make our proper impact in this essential organisation.
