Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

When you visit the headquarters of Operation Sophia, will you bear in mind and follow up on the questions that humanitarian organisations such as Médicins san Frontières have raised? They are out there working in the most difficult situations and we must be very cognisant of their concerns. We will leave it to the Minister to ensure that when he is there and speaking to the people who are in charge of the overall operation these questions are strongly put to them. The humanitarian aspect of the work in which our Naval Service is involved is more important. It is rescuing people. It is welcome if there is such a decline in the number of migrants travelling over the Mediterranean, but it does not seem proportionate. There are 613 for a quarter of the year whereas for two previous years there were 17,509 migrants rescued. We appreciate that good work and it is hugely important.