Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for their attendance and for their presentations. I apologise that I had to leave the meeting as a vote was called in the Seanad. Mr. Brian Killoran referred to the lack of a coherent EU immigration policy. I refer to my experience of having served in the European Parliament and on its foreign affairs committee and human rights sub-committee. Would he agree that there is also a lack of a coherent EU policy on the sale of arms and munitions? Destabilisation in areas has been fuelled to an extent by the lack of a long-term European Union policy. Some countries in Europe have technically contributed to the crisis because of the lack of an overall policy on what is being sold to these regions. This will be a long-term problem because of destabilisation.

In 2008 I visited refugee camps in the Sudanese border area where very little has changed since that time and likewise in Gaza where very little has changed over 20 years. Will the same scenario occur with regard to the current crisis over the next 20 years? Is a more coherent, comprehensive EU policy required now so that we do not look back in five years' time and ask why this was not done five years ago? What is the ambassador's view? How does Ireland as a small country influence European Union policy to come up with a more comprehensive solution to this issue? Recent decisions do not convince me that this is being dealt with in a comprehensive way. Many other issues which we seem to have ignored need to be dealt with as well as the migration issue.