The traditionally adversarial nature of politics presents little opportunity for cross-party collaboration in Ireland today.
The joint committees of the Oireachtas, however, offer members of the Oireachtas a rare opportunity to work on a cross-party, non-adversarial basis. Recently I was part of the Foreign Affairs Committee delegation to China and Tibet whose members collaborated in the interests of human rights, trade and diplomacy. Austin Deasy led the delegation with a directness that was appreciated both by the travelling party and by our hosts.
China is complex, huge and intriguing. Despite frequent media references to China as a market of 1.3 billion consumers, an estimated 900 million of its population are rural peasants whose average annual income is $160. According to the UN Human Development Index China's economy, in real terms of per-capita ranking, lies 107th, between Albania and Namibia. Its expanding rich elite, with its 61 million mobile phones, is very much in the minority.
Its recent history is tragic. As many as 65 million people died of famine in the early 1960s, which resulted from the disastrous policies of the Great Leap Forward. Its people are varied and diverse, comprising over 55 ethnic minorities numbering 100 million people. Its record on human rights has often been questioned, with between two million and 20 million people believed to be in labour camps, and with more people executed every year than in the rest of the world combined.
In a good 3 1/2-hour meeting at the very start of our 10-day visit we questioned our Chinese counterparts in Beijing on human rights standards and violations in China and Tibet, including the absence of the Dali Lama. We raised the distressing cases of missing persons in considerable detail. Unfortunately the answers to the specific cases were very frayed and did not add to our knowledge on the whereabouts of the named individuals.
When a reporter last week insinuated that Beijing was planning to fix the re-election of Hong Kong's Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee-hwa, by asking China's President Jiang Zemin whether the chief executive was the "emperor's choice", the President exploded into a tantrum. Evidently, many in China still confuse a free press with impertinence.
With the highest political execution rate in the world it is hard to be convinced by the Chinese on human rights. Like the US, they have an execution ethos, and indeed, the present Republican presidential candidate, Mr George W. Bush, is on a par with Chinese thinking on this.
Without patronising a great people, we felt the Chinese should continue to be encouraged in any efforts to improve their human rights record. Plainly, lecturing them on the issue would be less than helpful and potentially counterproductive.
In Tibet there was a heated debate with local cultural and religious groups. The delegation raised the names of the missing and the imprisoned. Before our departure from Dublin, Amnesty International and the Tibet Solidarity Group gave us a thorough briefing on the cases, and our hosts were left in no doubt as to our concerns.
The cases raised included the young Panchen Lama, missing since 1995; Ngawang Choepel, an American-Tibetan scholar allegedly arrested in 1995 and detained in a labour camp since then; and the case of a young nun, Ngawang Sangdrol, arrested and detained for 21 years for chanting political slogans. Allegations about the control of monasteries were also discussed.
In the presence of the Irish Ambassador in China, Mr Declan Connolly, who accompanied us throughout, the question of China's intentions on last month's Security Council vote was discussed in depth.
Apart from mentioning their gratitude for Ireland's support over 40 years ago for Chinese entry to UN, against the international run of play, at all stages of the visit the Chinese gave no concrete commitments to vote for Ireland.
At that time we believed the outcome was on a knife edge and all of us did our best to sway the Chinese in our favour. I believe our efforts were productive, and that China did actually vote for us.
There is a confidence in China today that was missing 25 years ago when I first travelled there as president of the UCD soccer club on a trip organised by the late, great Dr Tony O'Neill (no memorial to him yet at Belfield).
Throughout the visit our hosts could not have been more helpful. Our open and frank approach was appreciated, and we believe we made a difference in consolidating and stiffening a growing relationship between Ireland and China. It was refreshing for us to work together on a cross-party basis for this common aim.
There is a view that we should severely cull the number of Oireachtas committees. Fine Gael's recent Democratic Revolution document, for example, proposes a one-third reduction in the number of committees.
Such a reduction in committee numbers would diminish cross-party co-operation and political effectiveness in areas of vital political importance. The majority of people in Ireland today, I believe, would balk at the notion of removing the Health and Children Committee or the Environment and Transport Committee. These policy areas are of fundamental importance and should not be discarded or enfeebled.
Foreign Affairs has two committees, deservedly so. The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs, formed in the spring of 1993, subsumed the work of the previous Committee on Secondary Legislation and also covered a broader sphere of activity, encompassing the State's foreign relations as a whole.
Such was the volume of work, however, and the dearth of time available to committee members, that in 1995 a separate Joint Committee on European Affairs was established to scrutinise European law and examine our role in Europe in general.
To dispose of either of these committees, or to dilute their effectiveness through amalgamation would hamper our ability to probe, question and review elements of foreign policy in a cross-party and effective way. As the Minister, Sile de Valera, so recently indicated, in foreign affairs, as in all other policy areas, we need more, not less, discussion.