Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Tánaiste's statement that the conflict cannot be resolved by force and that view is shared by the majority in Ireland. According to a RED C poll released yesterday by PANA, 67% believed Ireland should not support the sending of arms or military supplies to Syria and 79% said we should not support a war in Syria without a UN mandate. There is a general consensus throughout the country and across the political spectrum that the way forward is to come up with a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Does the Tánaiste agree that the difficulty will be getting people into a room, given that the Syrian opposition comprises 1,000 groups with various views? The Free Syrian Army and the opposition generally have a precondition that they will not agree to negotiations with President Assad. Is there any way of getting around this precondition? Is it helpful?

The Tánaiste has said, "As a member of the executive council of the OPCW, our ambassador to the organisation will express our full support for the adoption of this agreement at a meeting of the executive council later this week." He also referred to the significant resources that will be needed to deal with the chemical weapons issue. Will he elaborate on this statement? What does he propose in that regard? Will financial support be provided or will individuals provide support?

Bearing in mind that 100,000 opposition troops are fighting government troops, how realistic is the four point plan of the UN emergency relief co-ordinator which addresses the issue of unimpeded access and so on? There are 1,000 groups in the opposition, some of which are more extreme than others. It is reported that the jihadists and al-Qaeda support is increasing among the opposition groupings and this will create difficulties in trying to get them to talk. People are looking for answers. I agree that there is no simple answer, but the only way to resolve this conflict is to have people sit down around a table. What we can we do to encourage this?

I do not know that it is a good idea in the context of the chemical attack to refer to it being the responsibility of one side or the other. For instance, people were arrested in Turkey who were trying to make sarin gas, while others were arrested in Iraq. People are saying the weapons that fired missiles into Syria are not in rebel hands, but the same weapons were used in Libya. People are more interested in how the conflict will be resolved and some of those who have engaged in the conflict will end up before the International Criminal Court. How can we push forward this issue?