Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his presentation and I apologise for my late arrival. I hope to be present for the replies to my questions but I will read them in the transcript of the proceedings.

My first question is about the situation in Syria. We have a commitment to take in 300 refugees, which is much better than some other EU countries. The EU has taken in 1000% fewer refugees than Lebanon. Can the Minister push the EU to do more? What is the progress on taking in the 300 refugees?

The Chairman and I visited the area of the Turkish border with Syria. We saw extremely poor Syrian refugees. Do those people get a look in when it comes to countries taking in refugees or are the better off or more educated people considered first?

I have a question about the humanitarian summit.

How are we going to ensure a role for the private sector? Its role in western Africa and Siberia has been negligible. Can we pursue that at the humanitarian summit?

At the last periodic review at the United Nations Human Rights Council on Iran, a number of recommendations regarding human rights were made. More than 12 countries at the meeting referred to state-led pressure on the 300,000 Baha'i people in Iran. The head of the Iranian delegation sought to make out that there were no problems for the Baha'i in Iran. This is an issue that we brought up when we were in that country. Independent reports tell us that there is persecution of Baha'i in Iran due to their religion, including reports from the Secretary General of the UN and the UN Special Rapporteur for human rights in Iran. I ask that Ireland pursue this matter and raise questions at the upcoming periodic review of Iran.

We had a recent event with the Association of European Parliamentarians with Africa on tax evasion in Africa. We discussed a recent African Union report claiming that some €60 billion is lost to African countries annually due to very pressurised lobbying by financial institutions. Liberalised capital flows, debt conditionalities and tax breaks for multinationals are issues that are being highlighted and pursued by development campaigners, but they are way down the agenda. I have tried to ask the Minister about this in the Dáil but I keep being pushed to the Minister for Finance. If we are talking about development aid and the effects of these tax issues for developing countries, why does the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade not have a more proactive role? What is its role? We talk about policy coherence, but I have to wonder - and I mean no disrespect to the Minster of State, Deputy Dara Murphy - why the Minister of State, Deputy Sean Sherlock, is not attending. If we are concerned about sustainable development, attending would have come under the latter's role, especially with the Addis Ababa conference coming up.

I will not repeat what other people have said but I share their concerns about Gaza, the lack of reconstruction and the continuing building of settlements.