Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Does anybody else want to get involved? In that case I thank all the witnesses for coming before the committee this afternoon. I thank Ms O'Mahoney, Ms Kennedy and Mr. Doyle for their contributions and updating us on Concern's activities within Syria and the recommendations they have brought before the committee. We have no problem supporting those recommendations, and we will write to the Minster after today's meeting with a view to the Government supporting those recommendations. They are very reasonable recommendations and they will go some way towards our contribution, outside of our financial contribution, to supporting a peaceful solution in the region.

We will have the Minister in here in the coming weeks when I am sure this issue will be still on the agenda, as the situation deteriorates on a daily basis in Syria and in the border region with Turkey. Obviously, we should never forget about the humanitarian situation which Concern deals with, particularly its role in dealing with health, education and other areas, and providing fresh water within Syria also. We commend it on that and we commend its volunteers who are out there putting their lives in danger on a daily basis. It is something we should never forget, particularly when we consider the fate of the British taxi driver who broke off his Christmas holiday to help these people. We should never forget the volunteers who are putting their lives in danger.

As Ms O'Mahoney said, other issues will arise. There is the ebola crisis in west Africa and the deteriorating situation in south Sudan where everybody is talking about the famine that will happen there, and we cannot stop it. We will revisit those issues in the coming months and we hope to see all the witnesses in the near future. I thank them sincerely for coming before the committee and briefing the members on the humanitarian situation. We will be dealing with other issues in Syria, including the political issues, with other groupings. We hope to have some journalists, United Nations representatives and Government representatives before the committee in the coming months. We had a most interesting discussion and it is always a pleasure to hear about the good work Concern is doing in these areas of conflict.

We will now go into private session for the remainder of the meeting.