Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the delegation. This crisis is so vast - Mr. Andrews mentioned comments made in the Dáil in 2012 - that it is difficult for us, as backbenchers, to get our heads around it. It is so vast internationally and has ramifications and implications right across the world. I note with particular interest the reference to the inability of the United Nations to perform. It is interesting that the Prime Minister of India, which is a huge country, is in Dublin today lobbying the Taoiseach to gain support for reform measures India would like to see in the United Nations. One such measure is that it wants a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

Leaving that aside, however, it is important that we are now collectively looking at the UN and seeing its weaknesses and strengths, as well as separating the theory and practice concerning its role in the world. Europe is trying to do something in a haphazard way. The UN is out there somewhere in the ether, although I know there are representatives of the UNHCR here today. However, we need a world vision in terms of what is happening.

I would like to ask some rather direct questions. I would praise Ireland's wonderful record in handling programme refugees over the years. Interestingly enough, those who are taking a very negative stance in Europe include the Hungarians. As a child, I remember families welcoming and accommodating Hungarian refugees. It is a pity that the Hungarian Government does not remember the Hungarian migrants and refugees.

Ireland has a wonderful record starting with the Hungarians. We then had the Vietnamese boat people. I know there are also some Rohingya people from Burma in this country as programme refugees. We have had wonderful people from Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as Kosovo. Some have settled and integrated and have not been a problem while others have returned to their countries which they had been economically and politically forced to leave. It is a wonderful thing to see them being settled and accommodated here, as well as being afforded the security and protection they need in the short term.

Given GOAL's involvement in a particular region, are we talking today about Syrian refugees alone? I do not want to get emotional about what is happening in the world, including three year old children dead on the beaches and where they might have started out from. We are a small country that has made a contribution in the past. We are continuing to make this contribution, small as it might be in the eyes of NGOs, involving between 3,000 and 5,000 people. Are we talking about accommodating only the Syrians? My information is that large numbers of Eritreans, Somalians, Pakistanis, Afghans, Iraqis and Libyans are also part of that movement of people.

As an Irish politician, therefore, I am seeking direction on how we can pick these poor, unfortunate people for refuge in Ireland. We have heard about the situation. For example, on RTE radio this morning, there was a vivid report from the camps in Lebanon.

Where do we extend our reach of humanity to? Should we go to camps in Jordan and take them out of there because they have been living in misery for two or three years already? Should we go to the Mediterranean and help the Italians because of the big influx? Will the witnesses suggest which 4,000 or 5,000 should be the lucky ones that Ireland will accommodate over the next two years? Is there a priority? My heart goes out to those in the Lebanese and Jordanian camps and in the overflowing camps in Turkey and, more recently, to the hundreds of thousands who are moving up through Europe. I would like to hear how the witnesses suggest that we, as parliamentarians and as a Government, should respond. It is expected that this year alone there will be 3,500 applications for asylum, which are separate to the programmed refugees that we will bring in, so there will be an increase in asylum applications. I feel a sense of hopelessness because the project is so vast. It requires an international response. It requires Russia, China, the United Nation in its reformed structure, the European Union, and the Arab countries, including Iran, which are key players in the conflict, and Saudi Arabia, which is another player in the conflict, to open their coffers. We need the United Nations and all of these agencies and countries to work together to try to create a better world.