Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the members for their questions. Deputy Byrne asked about the enormous burden that is being placed on Lebanon. We are not only engaged in that area but have Irish troops serving with UNIFIL and we have sent new troops to participate with UNDOF in the Golan Heights. We have a very strong traditional involvement there. Irish troops have been in Lebanon since 1978 from the beginning of the conflict there. From what we can gather, and we met some of the army officers who were there, they are very well respected and their reputation is so good that the Lebanese people in the area have submitted petitions to keep them there and ensure that they will not be moved because they were being moved from area to area. We have a very strong reputation in that respect.

On the question of why half the Palestinians in Syria are being displaced, there are 500,000 to 600,000 Palestinians in Syria and approximately half of them have been displaced. They were located largely the Damascus, which has come in for some very heavy shelling. Both sides have engaged heavily in the Damascus area and that has resulted in the displacement many members of the community. Many of them are displaced within the Syrian borders but they are increasingly beginning to cross over into the neighbouring countries. That adds to the very sizeable Palestinian populations that are in Jordan and in Lebanon and that creates a new problem in its own right. The Burj Barajnah camp we visited in the Lebanon was a Palestinian camp that has been there since 1948 from the first major showdown in the conflict there. It is a camp to which a new wave of Palestinians have come from Damascus and the Syrian area. That is part and parcel of the problem; the Palestinians are now becoming more and more displaced because the area in which are located is becoming increasingly targeted.

On the question of whether we are satisfied with the funding being provided for Gaza, we have always supported the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, This committee would have been addressed by John Ging, a former director of UNWRA, in the past. We have worked through that agency in this respect. It has been given that responsibility since 1948 when it came into existence with the specific mandate of maintaining services to the displaced Palestinian population. It is doing that in Gaza, Syria and Lebanon and we met representatives of UNRWA in Lebanon. We are very satisfied that it is a very strong, well organised organisation. That is the agency our funding for Gaza largely goes through. We can never be fully satisfied that everything will go to the right place all of the time in those conflict, fragile situations but we are satisfied that in this case very little more could be done to ensure that the money is properly dispensed and disbursed.

With regard to what we can do to assist refugees, the Minister for Social Affairs in Lebanon made the point strongly to us that what is required is not only a question of providing funding and resources but one of the international community undertaking some of the burden in regard to displaced persons and refugees. They asked us to emphasise to the European Union, in particular, the need for members states of the Union, the international community, to take refugees from Syria as they should not all be taken by the surrounding neighbouring countries. Sweden is doing an outstanding job in that respect. It is taking in 12,000 to 17,000 refugees. There was a debate in the European Union on Monday or Tuesday of this week to that effect and a resolution was debated.

Some 12 countries in the European Union have agreed to take programme refugees and Ireland is one of them. We have not taken very many but in the region of 25 to 30 are in the pipeline. This relates to the Department of Justice and Equality but I understand the agreement is that all of the refugees Ireland will take next year will be from Syria. We take 92 to 100 refugees every year but the entire cohort will be from Syria next year. Perhaps that might be looked at again, depending on the pressures there. Ireland is one of the 12 countries beginning to do that. The neighbouring countries are very anxious that burden is accepted.

The question as to whether the Palestinians are sufficiently united is a big one. Members know very well the situation in regard to Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Currently, the only people engaged in the talks are the Palestinian Authority and the PLO. Hamas is not engaged. We were not in a position to talk to Hamas when we were there because the European Union does not give proper recognition to it. It is not engaged currently but undoubtedly as the talks go on, there must be a reconciliation of both sides of the Palestinian equation. One cannot have a solution for the Occupied Territories and the West Bank but not have a solution for Gaza. The two must come together, otherwise there will not be a two state solution. That is something which is envisaged. We asked how the reconciliation was going but it is difficult to say how successful it is. Certainly, the Ministers and the Prime Minister were very strong on the need for reconciliation and talks. Hopefully, it will yield some success.

Deputy Mitchell referred to the World Bank, Israel and the €3.4 billion which could be got in a single year. I got the chance to read most of the World Bank report on the aeroplane on the way back. It is just looking at area C, which has approximately 60% of the West Bank territory. It has a huge amount of the resources. The original decision under the Oslo Accord was that this area would be supervised and under Israeli mandate for five years but Israel has continued to retain it, which is the problem. One then has the settlements, the extraction of the natural resources there and so on. I am not sure there will be a solution to that until there is a solution to the talks and the Palestinian question. Certainly, it is an anomaly and is discrimination and that control should not be retained. There would be so much benefit to Palestinian welfare and well-being if it was not retained.

In every programme in which we are engaged, there is a requirement that gender issues are addressed. That is a basic principle underlying all our programme activity. I know there was some discussions on The Jasmine Tent and so on. We deal with the international rescue committee which is a partner with The Jasmine Tent, so we would have an input into that. We gave it €100,000 not so long ago for its work. Resolution 1325 is being pursued by the Government. We discussed honour killings and gender-based violence at our various meetings. We expect gender equality to be part and parcel of the spend of any of the money we give.

I will not be able to attend the London conference as, unfortunately, I will be away elsewhere. We are very anxious that we are strongly represented at the London conference and we will certainly have representation there as it is important. The United Kingdom is pressing very strongly for us to have ministerial representation at it will give it that extra emphasis.

We met Israeli NGOs and we have seen the Oxfam report on gender issues. The analysis has been done there. When we met Israeli NGOs, we discussed Israel but we felt it might be a bit tokenistic because it was purely a development programme in which we were engaged. We were looking at Syria and Palestine. It is something we will do in the future and we will certainly try to get as high a level of Israeli engagement at political level and other levels. We met Israeli NGOs and we made a contribution of €85,000 for a programme called Comet-ME, which is a very interesting programme in the Hebron Hills. All of the electricity needs of Palestinian villages in the area are being provided through solar panels and turbines. This is creating a whole new scenario. When there was no electricity, the children could not study in the evenings. A new school has been built for the children and all sorts of new developments are taking place as a result. It has been very good.

We have moved to the second stage of providing water. Energy and water are the two key areas. The Israelis are not doing bore holes because it is too expensive and one needs to go too deep to get the water but they have a massive collection and storage programme for water. Believe it or not, there is a rainy season there and when it rains, they will be able to collect and store sufficient water for the year, which will be able to provide for irrigation, animals and human consumption. It will be treated and filtered. In that way, we are able to provide two of the basic requirements, namely, energy and water. An Israeli NGO is at the heart of doing that, which is very welcome, and it is part of the way Irish money is being spent.