IRELAND: Ireland's full support for moves to reform the United Nations was pledged by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Dermot Ahern, when he met the Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, at UN headquarters yesterday.
He said a strong and effective UN had always been of great importance to Ireland.
The Minister told the Secretary-General of the Government's commitment to help bring about a successful outcome to the summit of world leaders in September, which will make the final decision on reforms.
The Government's view was that, given its programme of aid to the Third World and lack of historical baggage, Ireland had "good credentials", particularly with developing countries, and was in a position to play a significant role in achieving a successful outcome to the reform process.
"That was the primary reason why I came here," the Minister told reporters afterwards. "The UN is one of the cornerstones of our foreign policy." Mr Annan was "very positively disposed to our initiative [ and] our offer".
He said Mr Annan was "very much on the same wavelength" on the question of civilian rapid response units to provide assistance to disaster areas. At EU level Ireland has supported a Swedish proposal to "beef up" civilian rapid response, particularly in the aftermath of the tsunami disaster in South-East Asia.
On the issue of EU battle-groups, strongly favoured by Mr Annan for UN peacekeeping work, Mr Ahern said he indicated "that we have an issue in relation to the 'triple lock'," - referring to the requirement for a UN mandate, Government decision and Dáil approval for all military missions abroad.
"I told him that, generally, our people are strong supporters of the UN mandate and we have indicated at EU level that we are positively disposed to participating, but there is [ an inter-departmental] group put together to look particularly at the legal issues flowing from that."
On the current Volcker investigation into alleged corruption in the UN's oil-for-food programme, Mr Ahern told journalists: "I did stress that they have been decisive here in the initial response and obviously, given that due process is required, we have to leave it up to the UN and the agencies involved to move the matter on."
Earlier this week, the Minister said: "The Government has indicated to the EU that we are positively disposed to participating in battle-groups for humanitarian operations provided the 'triple lock' is in place, which ultimately is UN-mandated."
However, he added, a number of issues arose, including the fact that "our troops would have to train on foreign soil and we have to see if there is a legal impediment to that". He said the groups were really "rapid response groups". He added: "Our people quite clearly want our Army to be involved in humanitarian missions abroad. They don't want our troops involved in war."
On the absence of any allocation for the International Fund for Ireland in President Bush's proposed budget, Mr Ahern said the matter would be discussed with US officials. The fund was probably "needed more than ever" in the context of DUP participation in the Northern Ireland peace process.
Mr Ahern met immigration groups at the Emerald Isle Immigration Centre in the New York borough of Queens. He told reporters the Government's estimate for the number of undocumented Irish in the US was "somewhere in the region of 15,000".
He would be "lobbying as best I can to put the Irish case" to regularise the undocumented immigrants.