Ireland will soon be renewing its international efforts to bring an end to the use of the death penalty, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, told the House.
The session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights due to begin in Geneva on March 22nd would afford such an opportunity, he said.
"It is with some pride that I would like to tell you that Ireland has been elected to the chair of the session, one of the most important events in the human rights calendar. Our permanent representative in Geneva, Ambassador Ann Anderson, will be conducting the proceedings in Geneva and her election is both a recognition of the consistent and progressive policies on human rights adopted by successive Irish governments, and a measure of the Ambassador's own standing at the United Nations in Geneva," Mr Andrews said.
"We, in the chair, will be calling on the European Union for the first time, through its current presidency, Germany, to introduce the resolution on the abolition of the death penalty."
The Minister was speaking in a debate on a motion tabled by the Independent members Mr Shane Ross, Mr Joe O'Toole, Ms Mary Henry and Mr David Norris, calling on the Government to protest to the US in the strongest possible terms at "the continued barbarity of capital punishment" there. It also demanded that the Minister for Foreign Affairs call in the US ambassador and require an immediate response.
Mr Andrews moved an amendment that the Seanad note the efforts of the Government, in co-operation with EU partners, to impress on the US authorities at state and federal level, and on the authorities of other countries where its use continued, Ireland's strong opposition to carrying out death sentences.
The Government amendment was carried by 21 votes to five.
Mr Shane Ross pointed out that one of the most recent executions in the US had been carried out on 29-year-old Sean Sellars, in Oklahoma. He had been convicted of murder when he was just 16 years old. Such an execution of a "minor" had not been carried out since 1959.