Mr. David Tilson, MP:

I will start. I will try not to talk for long because my colleagues might wish to speak.

A number of issues were raised. I always maintain that jobs is the main issue, regardless of whether it is Canada, Ireland, Europe or the United States. Unemployment is high here, but it is high everywhere. Deputy Crowe asked about jobs and whether Canada is family friendly. Unquestionably, there are many people of Irish descent in Canada. My colleague, Ms Papillon, who is a francophone, will confirm that there is a large Irish contingent in the francophone community. They have spread throughout the world. You mentioned our Minister of Finance, Mr. Flaherty. He is quite proud of his Irish connections, as is the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration who was here this weekend to attend the same jobs fair that was mentioned. He is proud of his connections and always wears a green tie, or at least he does quite often.

We have jobs and most of the jobs being promoted at the jobs fair are in western Canada. The reason is that the oil business there has expanded and houses are being built, but we do not have enough people to build them. That is why we are recruiting the people who are unemployed in Ireland to help build those houses and other structures. We need those people to help us with that problem in the west.

The Deputy mentioned our banks. I will not delve into what Mr. Flaherty said. He might have been too critical, but I do not know. There is no question that our banks are more regulated than banks here. We have not had the same problems. The banks offered people all kinds of money to buy a home and the bubble burst. That is the problem. We did not have that, touch wood. It could happen but Mr. Flaherty is doing things such as increasing the amount of the downpayments one must make and ensuring mortgages can no longer be as high.

With respect to The Gathering, I have seen the signs promoting it. It is a wonderful promotional idea to encourage people from all over the world to return to Ireland. I wish the country well with it. I am sure if we reach the stage of signing the CETA agreement in Ireland, there will be all kinds of Canadians travelling over to witness that.

The Syria issue is serious.

We will discuss it when we meet the Chairman and members of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade. I thank members for their comments. We have looked at the situation in Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Ireland but our observations are that Ireland seems to have done better than the other countries for a number of reasons. My congratulations go out to you for doing that. I acknowledge that Ireland is not there yet, but the situation is much better than in some of the other countries.

I will conclude but my colleagues are putting up their hands.