Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Smith for his compliments on the successful Presidency. I pay tribute to the officers and staff of my Department, both in Dublin and in Brussels, and to the officers of the Department of the Taoiseach for the work they have done.

On the universal periodic review, UPR, the implementation of the UPR recommendations is taken on board in our partnership with developing states and the recommendations inform our approach to our development relationship with states.

The European Union is the biggest contributor of humanitarian aid to Syria and the surrounding countries vis-à-vis the refugee crisis. From memory, approximately €1.25 billion has been committed by the EU. There has been some improvement in respect of countries honouring pledges but there is still a long way to go. The current situation is that more than 93,000 people have been killed. In excess of 6.8 million Syrians require immediate humanitarian assistance within the country. More than 4 million people have been internally displaced and more than 1.6 million Syrians have fled for sanctuary to neighbouring countries, including Iraq, Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. The countries hosting displaced Syrians have shown great generosity but they have limited resources to meet their growing needs.

Ireland has been a leader in terms of the international humanitarian response to the crisis. In recent weeks the Government announced a further humanitarian assistance package of €1.65 million, bringing our overall assistance to almost €10 million. To date, EU member states have contributed €1 billion in emergency funding and recently announced an additional €400 million in response to the deteriorating situation. I welcome the collective agreement made by G8 leaders when they met in County Fermanagh last month to provide an additional €1.5 billion in humanitarian assistance. That was in support of the latest UN appeal for €5.2 billion, which represents the largest such appeal that has ever been launched by the UN.

On the policy position, Deputy Smith is aware the situation in Syria has moved on significantly since 2011. The international response has not been as we would have liked. At all times we wanted to see a much more robust UN position adopted. It was not possible to get a strong UN response because of the exercise of vetoes at the Security Council. A succession of attempts have been made at getting a political resolution. The most recent before the current one was conducted by Dr. Brahimi. The advantage of the Geneva II process is that it involves both the United States and Russia. It is clear that for the process to work the participants in the conflict must be willing to participate in it. It does not appear as though the conference will be convened prior to early autumn at the latest but it is still the only prospect for a political solution to be found.

The hunger and nutrition conference was a priority for us during the Presidency. I have briefed the foreign Ministers on the conclusions which emerged from the conference and that will inform the way in which we will approach discussion on the issue of hunger and nutrition at the Foreign Affairs Council and also at the United Nations later in the year.

On the efforts the US Secretary of State is making to try to get talks under way again on the Middle East peace process, he has been deeply engaged in the process. We very much welcome the initiative taken by the US Administration following the last presidential election and the appointment of Mr. Kerry as Secretary of State. In March, President Obama spoke directly to the Israeli public about the need for renewed engagement. The Secretary of State has made repeated visits to the region and held extensive discussions with Israeli, Palestinian and regional leaders. He has already made five or six visits to the region in the space of three months.

The European Union is supportive of the effort. I have discussed the matter with the Secretary of State, Mr. Kerry. We must also assert the priorities of the EU on the issue. When we come to discuss the matter on Monday I expect that we will be updated by the High Representative on her information as to where the initiative of the Secretary of State, Mr. Kerry, is at this point. We will also consider such issues, for example, as guidelines on settlement products and consider the situation on the ground.