asked the Minister for External Affairs what action the United Nations take against defaulting members over arrears of annual subscriptions; if, in assessing member countries' subscriptions, account is taken of the arrears before apportioning the sum due from each member country; and if Ireland has taken any steps in conjunction with other states whose subscriptions are paid up to have the question of defaulters considered by the United Nations.

Under Article 19 of the United Nations Charter a member in arrears shall have no vote in the General Assembly if the amount of arrears equals or exceeds the amount of contributions due from it for the preceding two years. From this it will be seen that the Organisation has a self-enforcing penal regulation to deal with defaulters once their arrears attain a certain magnitude. There is, however, an escape clause inasmuch that such a member may be allowed vote if the General Assembly is satisfied that failure to pay is due to conditions beyond the member's control.

Account is not taken of arrears before apportioning the sum due from each member country. This is calculated by a special Committee on Contributions that bases itself roughly speaking on a comparison of national incomes and population in the member countries.

In the present financial crisis of the Organisation the arrears have not yet reached a level where Article 19 of the Charter can be invoked. Nonetheless Ireland and other members of the United Nations have consistently called upon those in arrears to pay their just debts to the Organisation. The question of examining the administrative and budgetary procedures of the United Nations especially with regard to covering the cost of peace-keeping operations has been put on the Agenda of the next session and the Irish Delegation will cooperate with any move from like-minded States to deal with this problem of arrears in particular.

Could the Minister say if any nation has ever been required to forgo its rights to vote as a result of its failure to pay its subscription?

I have no recollection of any such case having occurred.

Several nations, in fact, are in substantial arrears, are they not?

If they were over two years in arrears, they would cease to have the right to vote.

Is the Minister telling us there is no nation in more than two years' arrears with its subscription?

Not as far as I know.

Have any bad debts been written off?

I do not think so.