Tá áthas orm bheith anseo inniu ar son an Rialtais chun an díospóireacht seo a fhreagairt. Gabhaim mo bhuíochas leis an Seanadóir Ó Donnghaile as a smaointe a thabhairt dúinn maidir leis an ábhar tábhachtach seo. The Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, Marie Anderson, last month published a report concerning the RUC's handling of paramilitary attacks carried out by the Ulster Defence Association, UDA, and Ulster Freedom Fighters, UFF, between 1989 and 1993, which resulted in murders and multiple attempted murder…

I thank Senator Ó Donnghaile for his remarks, which are well noted. The position of the Government is clear and consistent. No matter where you are from, whether the shot was fired by a state actor or a non-state actor, everyone deserves access to justice. Every family deserves the truth on what happened to their loved one. The truth cannot be hidden away or written off as something that happened too long ago. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, has underlined in his regular contacts with the Secretary of State for North…

The legacy of the Troubles continues to impact on so many families and communities across this island and beyond as they continue, rightly, to seek truth and justice for their loved ones. The issue has been at the forefront of all our minds in recent days as the events marking the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday took place in Derry. It was an emotional moment across the island and beyond as so many reflected on the terrible day, the bitter legacy and the history that it shaped. We were all struck by the collectiv…

For Ukraine.

Exactly.

The Deputy supports Ukraine then.

Does the Deputy support Ukraine?

I would.

As Deputy Brady knows, the Israeli-Palestinian situation was not on the agenda of the European Council.

That is not the responsibility of Ireland. The Middle East peace process is a key priority for Ireland at EU level and on the UN Security Council. Indeed, with regard to the Security Council, which I am delighted has been mentioned on multiple occasions today, it was raised most recently on 19 January. The Minister for Foreign Affairs visited Israel, the occupied Palestinian territory and Jordan in the first week in November and he set out our continued support for a two-state solution. The House should not forget …

I have given the answer.

On a point of order, I am very happy to answer questions on this, but it was not on the agenda of the European Council so I am limited in what I can say. If the Deputy wants to table further questions on the specific issue for further elaboration on what I have said, he has the opportunity to table foreign affairs questions for the Minister who deals directly with these issues at the Foreign Affairs Council, FAC.

With regard to NATO and NATO's presence in various countries, we respect the sovereignty of other countries to decide what they want to do for themselves. If Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, almost all the countries in the EU along the Mediterranean and Turkey want to be part of NATO, that is a matter for them. We decided not to be because we have a policy of military neutrality. We are not part of NATO. NATO has not expanded. These countries decided to join NATO, mainly because they reasonably see a massive threat to t…

I am not advocating for Ukraine to join anything. Ukraine can do whatever its people and government decide to do. The Deputy talked about NATO expansion; I am talking about countries that decided to join NATO and we must respect their decisions. Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and other countries have very good reasons to be in military alliances, if that is their wish. We are not in military alliances. However, the Deputy should not confuse military neutrality with taking no sides when there is a clear question of righ…

I thank the Deputy for raising the very important question of COVAX. It is always worthwhile remembering that nobody is getting everything right in this pandemic but with vaccine distribution around the world, the EU is getting much right. We are the biggest exporter and donor of vaccines around the world and we should be proud of that. As the Taoiseach said, we must do more, and all this is under consideration. The Deputy is correct that COVAX has sounded the alarm in recent weeks about the availability of funds t…

I thank the Deputy. We are involved in various efforts to bring a resolution to this, particularly with regard to our membership of OSCE. There are a number of formats under that organisation to try to bring a resolution to this matter. OSCE provides a space for discussion between East and West, effectively Europe and Asia. It is a very important format. We have been to the fore in trying to ensure OSCE has a proper budget to do its job. I do not have an update today on the Normandy format talks that are under way.…

Before I conclude, I will briefly answer one or two of the other points. Deputy O'Sullivan raised some interesting environmental and ecological points, which I will certainly bring to the attention of our officials, regarding potentiality under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Deputy Cathal Crowe referred to Afghanistan. The situation is, obviously, very challenging. We in Ireland continue to support the Afghan people by working to address the dire humanitarian situation there. On 22 December, w…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Seanadóir as ucht an t-ábhar seo a ardú inniu. We believe the offices of the UN special rapporteurs receive adequate funding to allow them to implement their important mandates fully and in an independent manner. As the Senator will be well aware, respect for human rights and the promotion of human rights is, and will continue to be, a cornerstone of our foreign policy. Ireland plays an active role in promoting and protecting human rights at the United Nations, primarily through our consist…

The Senator was a special rapporteur at the Council of Europe.

It is a different forum but it is a similar matter.