The Government believes it is on course to secure a seat on the United Nations Security Council for the third time in the State's history, as the Taoiseach today continues an intensive personal lobbying campaign at the UN Millennium Summit.
As Mr Ahern met government heads from around the world yesterday to canvass support, senior officials said they believed if the vote was held today, Ireland would be successful. However, there will be intensive lobbying at senior level for the position between now and the ballot in mid-October and a further major effort will be required to ensure victory, the officials said.
Mr Ahern, who is holding separate meetings with over a dozen heads of government, declined to predict the outcome. "I think we will receive very significant support," he said. Whether that is enough nobody knows." Ireland, Norway and Italy are competing for two Security Council seats in the Western European and Others (WEOG) group. All 189 UN member states will vote in the ballot, from which two of the three will be elected to serve a two-year term. Norway is seen as the front runner, with Ireland's main opposition therefore coming from Italy, which is running a major campaign. In their contacts with other UN states, the Taoiseach, Irish ministers and officials are emphasising Ireland's smallness, in terms of size, population and influence, compared with Italy, to appeal to the many small UN member states. They are also pointing out that Italy was a Security Council member as recently as 1996, suggesting it is the "turn" of a smaller EU state to be elected.
"We have been saying that we have the perspective of a small nation. What we have been saying for 40 years on disarmament, and development assistance is huge for states, for example, in the South Pacific . . . when nobody else was talking about their difficulties Ireland was helping them," said Mr Ahern. He also cited the relationships Ireland had with the EU applicant members and the African states, as well as with our EU colleagues as reasons for optimism.
He rejected a suggestion that Ireland's association with major developed powers through EU membership might hinder it from being seen as a champion of small states in the campaign. "It doesn't, because we have taken different lines . . . . In the case of the last country we met today, Ethiopia, when every other country ran away from them when the war was on, Irish aid stuck with them." The Taoiseach paid tribute to the "small group of front-line people" who, he said, had co-ordinated the Security Council campaign.
The Irish campaign is led by Ms Mary Whelan, a senior official at Iveagh House, and Ireland's Ambassador to the UN in New York, Mr Richard Ryan.