Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have a different view. In the areas where they have been involved Irish Aid and the other NGOs have made a difference. I would not like the message to go out that there has been no progress made. As mentioned by the delegates, there is commonality among all of the countries about which we are speaking, including conflict. Who causes it? It is caused by people and countries. The scale of the problem is so shocking that we must wake up. In Yemen alone, 17.1 million people go to bed hungry and 7 million are starving. Do any of us believe the conflict there cannot be resolved? It can be. The first step is the removal of weaponry, while the second is to encourage people to come together to discuss their difficulties. There are villages and towns in Somalia that have shown resilience when the right actions are brought to bear.

This is also about climate change. There are people in Ireland who do not believe climate change is an issue. Perhaps somebody might talk to President Trump about his views on the matter. There are things we could do. I am shocked to note that this meeting is not being covered by the mainstream media. Why is that?

Reference was made in one of the opening statements to the pledges which had been made by various countries. Why would a country make a pledge and then walk away from it? I cannot get my head around it. Is it because that people get caught up in the excitement of a meeting that they make a pledge, only to walk away from it later? Is it possible for the committee to obtain a list of the countries that have made pledges and walked away from them? I would like these countries to be identified. I would also like to ask their ambassadors why they made these pledges and then walked away from them. It does not make sense. It was stated the Somalia appeal was 44% funded. What is the reason for the delay? Is it that people are waiting for the conflict to be resolved? What is happening in Yemen, including the bombing of funerals and hospitals and so on, is barbarism and beyond understanding.

During the earlier session we discussed the importance of conflict resolution and Ireland having a role to play in that regard. This is an area in which we have some experience. It is an issue on which we cannot adopt the position that something cannot be resolved. We have seen other countries move from conflict to peace and stability. We also discussed the amount being pumped into countries and the amount going out the backdoor via taxation and so on. We need to think of what we could do differently.

There are so many questions we could put to the delegates, but I do not think we should walk away thinking there is nothing we, as a people, can do.

There are people in Ireland who reject the idea that we take in 4,000 people but we should look at the scale of refugees in these countries, where people are going to bed hungry but yet take people in as neighbours. It should be a wake-up call for us all. We need to do things differently and use our money better. We must not walk away from this and all human beings on the planet have a responsibility to pull together, to get us away from the darkness of which we have heard today.