MINISTER FOR Sport Martin Cullen will represent the Government at the Olympic Games in Beijing and will also attend the opening ceremony, his department has confirmed.
Mr Cullen will travel to China on August 4th, four days ahead of the Games which open on August 8th. He will be accompanied by two senior officials from the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism. They are expected to remain in Beijing for almost three weeks.
A spokesman for the department said yesterday that Mr Cullen would attend the opening ceremony on the basis that issues surrounding human rights and Tibet had improved and had reached resolution.
Earlier this year, Mr Cullen's pre-decessor, the late Séamus Brennan, raised the possibility of a Government boycott of the ceremony if the Chinese government did not continue to improve its human rights record.
Mr Brennan was speaking in April, a week after the walk-out by the Chinese ambassador from the Green Party annual conference during party leader John Gormley's keynote speech.
At the time the Chinese authorities were facing sharp criticism for alleged human rights abuses and political oppression in Tibet. The ambassador took exception to Mr Gormley describing Tibet as a country.
"It is some months away and we will have to watch closely how they behave and how they perform; if it is a thing they don't respond in a way that is satisfactory then we could have the option of not attending the opening ceremony," said Mr Brennan at the time.
Then minister for foreign affairs Dermot Ahern said in April that if he himself was minister for sport he would not be inclined to go to the opening ceremony.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said last night the situation in Tibet had subsequently been resolved and a process of dialogue had commenced. A spokesman also said it was a long-standing convention of foreign policy that it was not desirable to mix sport and politics.
Green Party chairman Dan Boyle said last night that the party would not be raising objections to Mr Cullen attending the opening ceremony. "We have to acknowledge that there is a process in place. It is encouraging that there has been dialogue involving the Chinese over Tibet," he said.