Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I attended a separate informal dinner meeting on the evening before the Foreign Affairs Council that was arranged by my colleague, the Foreign Minister of Luxembourg. We had the opportunity to have a discussion with the representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross, who spoke to us in considerable detail about the practical difficulties in getting aid through. The Government is deeply aware of this from its own involvement with NGOs and UN agencies working on the ground. The problem is the United Nations Security Council resolution that should have allowed for access for aid is not being implemented. The regret is that the aforementioned UN resolution did not contain a means for enforcing it and again, that comes back to the point I made earlier about the way in which the veto is being used at the Security Council. While the Security Council resolution that was adopted was the best that could be achieved in the circumstances and was the one for which agreement was reached, it did not provide a means. Efforts are being made to try to get a more robust resolution that is enforceable and obviously, that is something Ireland is pursuing. As the issue of accountability was raised, I might add that Ireland has argued consistently that those who are responsible for the atrocities in Syria should be brought before the International Criminal Court and we continue to pursue that.