Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests here today. Ireland is quite clearly playing its part in the international programme. Unfortunately, it appears from Ms Magennis's submission that we are one of only 30 countries doing that. Of the 11.5 million international refugees, Ms Magennis expressed concern that only 1% are resettled. She acknowledges the work Ireland has done and continues to do. Our navy, as she acknowledges, is at the moment in the Mediterranean and doing a fantastic job saving lives in the first instance. There is a parallel with Ireland in the 18th or 19th century when refugees from our country went to other countries, particularly the United States, where the parallels are significant. In Canada, thousands of Irish refugees died in Grosse Île from different diseases. It is a huge issue which crosses centuries, generations and countries and it is right and important that we play our full part.

There are also concerns. If I were in Libya at the moment, the place I would love to come to is probably Ireland. There are tens of thousands of people in Libya and other countries which have been destabilised by American and British foreign policy, local dictators and ethnic conflicts. They all cannot come to Europe, notwithstanding what we do. As Ms Magennis says, the number of them resettled at the moment is 1%. It may not be the delegates' area and I accept that, but it seems to me that the countries which are responsible in many cases for the military interventions - America and the United Kingdom to name some of them - need to step up to the mark. In what way are they stepping up? If they remove one cut-throat dictator, what is their replacement? It seems they replace the dictator with absolute chaos. I believe the organisation called ISIS is a direct result of intervention by western forces in countries where they did not have a solution once they removed the disgraceful and appalling dictatorship. We need a European and worldwide policy to bring stability and investment and infrastructure to these regions. First, stability must be achieved. Then there must be investment in those countries in terms of employment, job creation and so on because we cannot and will not be able to take everyone who wishes to come here. Any actions we take as a nation should be to stabilise those countries and invest and support forces for investment and political education.

Concerns were expressed in this morning's edition of The Irish Timesabout the 700 refugees we have had in the past month alone. These are not United Nations refugees in the true sense. Concerns have been expressed in Government that 700 people have come to Ireland in the past month who are placing a significant demand on our resources. This might continue. The constructive positive development of increasing resources to people in direct provision is attracting more people here than it appears we can cope with. How do we resolve this issue? Would it be fair to say that every country in the United Nations should be stepping up to the mark and not just 30 countries? Should there be proportionality between the countries which have taken military intervention? Should they not be made to step up to the mark on this as well? What happened and is happening in Libya is the direct result of the dictator who was there and who thankfully is gone and the instability that is currently there. The United Nations has a key role in bringing stability to these regions. It has a power and an influence over all countries, which perhaps is not used enough in some respects to bring stability to these regions in order that people can live in the areas they are from. It is a huge issue.