UN General Assembly
2022

The United Nations and the rules-based international order are central to who we are as a nation. But multilateralism can succeed only if it is effective, and it can be effective only if we, the Member States, allow it to be so. That takes courage, political will and commitment to collective solutions to global challenges. It takes a readiness to compromise, and it takes a genuine belief in the principles of the Charter. When, in 100 years’ time, a future Irish leader marks the bicentenary of Ireland’s independence and returns to this Hall, I hope that he or she will be making a very different speech — one that celebrates substantive, sustained progress in ending conflict and tackling global inequality, poverty and hunger; one that will not cite frustrations over the use of the veto in the Security Council to thwart the will of a majority of Member States, because the veto will be an anachronism that has long ceased to exist; one that refers to a strengthened and reformed United Nations system, structured and equipped to tackle the challenges of its day; one that remarks on the common will to uphold the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and that looks back with relief at the collective action that brought this planet back from the brink of catastrophic collapse.