Human Rights Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-09 ============================================================ Marian Harkin (IND), Sligo-Leitrim Human rights are particularly important to Ireland, both at home and abroad. We consider human rights carefully when entering negotiations on new agreements. We have been carefully monitoring the human rights situation in West Papua and the Irish embassy in Jakarta engages on human rights in Indonesia both bilaterally and with the EU delegation to Indonesia and EU member states. The embassy works closely with the UN and international NGOs. The embassy also actively engages with NGO partners, providing funding through Irish Aid to country micro project schemes. I must say, and the Senator will accept, that human rights remain at the heart of our foreign policy. Ireland will continue to be a strong and consistent voice for human rights, inclusion and partnership. That does not negate what the Senator said. I have heard her comments and understand where they are coming from. I will bring them and her very strong concerns to the attention of the Minister. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-07-09/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:11+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-07-09