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

The events in Paris were truly horrifying and were particularly targeted at ordinary people doing very ordinary things - the kinds of ordinary things we do at weekends. It has brought home the reality of life for people in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Syria. They face that almost every day of their lives because there are suicide bombs and other bombings going on. The West now realises in a very real way what other people have been suffering and how vulnerable their lives are.

Prevention is a wider issue. We know that this all stemmed from a totally illegal invasion of Iraq. That has been acknowledged. The biggest protest was in Dublin, where 100,000 people marched against that invasion in 2003. That is where it stemmed from, so the powers that be must look at their actions, as well as the possible unintended consequences of those actions.

It was horrifying to read the release from ISIS, including the reasons and the way in which it described ordinary people doing ordinary things in Paris. I find it very difficult to understand how well educated girls from the West could go off to be jihadi brides, knowing that ISIS is totally against equality for women. It is against education for women or any sort of equal rights for women.

One does not fight fire with fire. While I can understand the rationale of the French wanting to do that, it is only going to create a worse situation. In that bombing there is absolutely no doubt that more civilian lives are being lost in Raqqa and other areas.

Our sympathies are with those who have been bereaved in Paris, Lebanon and elsewhere.