Ms Marissa Ryan:

I thank the Chairman and the committee members. It is a testament to the level of knowledge the committee has already developed on migration that automatically everyone here is familiar with the EU vis-à-visIreland's response. It is very easy and admirable for us to try to talk about Ireland playing a leadership role, and of course we should strive towards that. However, I completely agree with Deputy O'Brien that Ireland is already almost a laughing stock. While David Donoghue is a very accomplished diplomat who is doing as good a job as he possibly can in very difficult circumstances, Ireland was asked to co-chair the summit negotiations because migration is not a specifically politically sensitive issue in Ireland. The State does not receive a whole lot of migrants because of its geographical location and traditionally it has not mounted a very strong political discourse on the same. The situation here is dissimilar to the situation in Jordan, the co-chair of the summit and the host for the majority of people who have been displaced by the war in Syria. Ireland's situation regarding migrants is also very different from countries such as Denmark for example, which is experiencing a wave of migration. That is the reality in which the summit negotiations are happening.

It is against that backdrop that I and Oxfam would be very critical of Ireland's role within the EU's response. Over the past year we have seen the EU respond to a very manageable spike in the numbers of migrants arriving into the EU, which at 1 million is proportionately a very, very small figure. The European Union bloc went completely mad, called a UN General Assembly summit, dragged other regional blocs kicking and screaming to the negotiations, held them for a very short time which is difficult if one is thinking of negotiating a whole global solidarity deal. Simultaneously, the EU has not been willing itself to make actual political commitments. Therefore, we have Latin American countries and the African group of countries coming together to say that for them migration is something that happens every single day. They have millions of people who are displaced, for generations, in those countries. They do not have the luxury of calling a UN summit every year to discuss the issues. They ask what is the EU putting on the table. Even in negotiating tactics, the European bloc, which Ireland has been part of, is being extremely poor. It has turned down the opportunity to create an operational framework which would address issues such as expanded resettlement opportunities. There is no mechanism for real responsibility sharing and the negotiations will end tomorrow. Oxfam and a number of other civil society organisations have been quite clear that, ultimately, we may be forced to condemn the outcomes because they fall short of the existing human rights obligations in the refugee convention. That is the backdrop to what we are talking about today.

The countries who host 86% of displaced people are asking what the EU thought was going to happen after the EU-Turkey deal. The obligations to human rights have been outsourced and people's lives are being bartered. Kenya is now going to close camps for people who have been displaced by the Somalia crisis because why should it shoulder responsibility when the EU member states will not?

It is very difficult to say that Ireland can, or will, play a leadership position. There is potential for traction if we can get our act together and get our house in order. One of the things which has been absent from the summit is political commitment. We are now looking at a situation where outcome documents that should have been strong and operational have been compromised and will be let go up until 2018 for lack of political commitment. I do not see how that is going to change between now and then, especially at EU level, with the rise of racism and xenophobia across Europe.

There is potential for Ireland, and specifically for members of this committee and their parties, to engage, scrutinise and talk to the other EU member states about what a rational and humane response would be. This is a manageable situation. It is not something we are overwhelmed by. Look at what is being done domestically. As Deputy O'Brien and Senator Daly have already pointed out, Ireland has not even taken in the 4,000 refugees as committed to in the refugee protection programme.

Our existing asylum system takes in approximately 1,500 per year. In the meantime, children are languishing in Greece, women are being harassed on the borders of Europe and the vast majority of people are sitting in development countries which can barely provide essential services to their own citizens let alone to this new spike of displaced people. While it is good that Ireland should play a leadership role, that role should involve getting our own house in order and then trying to play a sensible role within the EU bloc.

Deputy Crowe referred to the EU-Turkey deal and the EU trust fund for Africa. I agree it is difficult to see how our official development assistance, ODA, is being used in these places where border security is being washed in alongside aid. We all know that the idea behind this aid is that it can curb migration, but we all also know that increased development means increased mobility and that should not be seen as a problem.

There are two calls on Ireland. The first is to play a respectable and responsible role by working with Departments such as the Department of Justice and Equality in the context of overseeing our domestic programmes. The second is to look at how we in Europe can play a more coherent and sensible role.