Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would like to join with the Chairman in expressing my condolences to the people of France and to the families of those who lost loved ones in the horrific attacks in Paris. Of course, our concern must now be how we can prevent future attacks. We have had many reports of citizens from the UK and Ireland going to Syria to join the fight with Islamic State. Their modus operandiis to send those people back to their home countries to perpetrate attacks similar to those in Paris in other European countries, including Ireland. We need to ensure that that does not happen. I propose that at some stage we should have the relevant leaders of various State agencies, the Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces in here to outline what they are doing to prevent this.

It has been pointed out for many years that there are elements within the communities in Ireland who will assist Islamic State in perpetrating these attacks in other countries, but who could do it here too. There is no point in having more motions of sympathy about deaths in Ireland. We must prevent those deaths and attacks in Ireland because it is highly foreseeable that people will return from Syria having fought there and their mission will be to carry out an attack here in Ireland. That is not beyond the bounds of possibility. That is what our intelligence services would tell us is going to happen, so our task now is to prevent it from happening.