Dan Neville (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I also welcome the group. I do not want to repeat any of what has been said, but I wish to raise two issues.

As Dr. Severoni is aware, we attended refugee camps in both Jordan and Ethiopia in the past two years and, having visited them, one is very conscious of the health issues in them, including sanitary services, the fact that ten people are sleeping in one tent and the general health issues that are present, despite the best efforts of the UN commission for refugees. Will Dr. Severoni comment on this issue and involvement in dealing with it? When we were there, we did not come across the world health authority. We were there as guests of the United Nations.

The other point concerns what we found in some of the refugee camps. There were people within the refugee population with a lot of medical skills. What usage is made of their skills to improve or try to manage the issue in some way? It is almost impossible to talk about an improvement other than trying to maintain a reasonable level of health. One would be absolutely frightened of an outbreak of any contagious disease in some of the places we saw during our visits. The camp in Jordan appeared massive - the camp in Ethiopia was probably a little more manageable - because of the flood of refugees from Syria into Jordan. To me it looked like a very serious health issue or a potential health issue. Will Dr. Severoni comment on this?