Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Tánaiste for coming before the committee again and for his comprehensive report. We have discussed the Gaza issue on many occasions in the past. My own belief is that this was bound to happen. There was no peace process or structure in place for the last couple of years. It was a period waiting for something to happen, as has occurred now. In the aftermath of the US presidential election, might it be feasible for the EU to co-operate with the US, in a major way that has not happened heretofore, with a view to setting up some kind of a permanent ongoing structure? It could be used as a place to air grievances instead of responding to grievances with military force, by either side. In other words, it would be a permanent peace process whereby the opposing combatants can attend, and be encouraged to attend as opposed to waiting for something else to happen. I am not suggesting that the witnesses present are waiting for something to happen, but it is just a fact of life and has been the pattern since I have been involved in politics.

I shall now turn to the DRC and similar situations worldwide.

I refer to the access and resort to the international war crimes tribunal and the need to take action that is specific, definite and clearly in the vision of those who are perpetrating appalling crimes throughout Africa and elsewhere. This already has been demonstrated in respect of Mr. Taylor, who at present is serving his sentence in the Netherlands, instead of in more convivial surroundings from which he might perhaps have escaped. Members previously have discussed the apparent ineffectiveness of the United Nations in such conflict situations but is it possible to put in place a sequence of events that would automatically kick in to address the kind of issues that now are evident in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, DRC? It is neither today nor yesterday since such events started. While the international community is looking on, apparently helpless, many international and multinational corporations work and operate within the area. They have in place their own independent security systems, which operate independently to the exclusion of the national population as though they have been superimposed on the local community from the sky. This also has been evident elsewhere recently. Is it possible, again in co-operation with the United Nations, to try to focus on the number of multinational corporations operating in areas that are resource-rich and from whence they draw considerable profits and in which investment takes place in a manner that meets the requirements of the international investors but not those of the local population? I will conclude by stating that on foot of what members saw in recent weeks in that general region, I do not believe it to be possible for nothing to happen when one has total and absolute poverty and no services whatsoever while having, at the same time, the extraction of rich mineral resources, apparently with international approval. All that can follow from that is deep unrest and eventual upheaval. I acknowledge this issue has been tossed around for a long time and that the Tánaiste is both aware of it and has raised it previously but the time has come for a new impetus and emphasis on it.