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

As the Chairman has done, it is important to acknowledge the work done by Médecins Sans Frontières. It is extremely difficult and harrowing. I have met doctors and nurses, most recently Aoife who was on the MS Aquarius. Words fail me with regard to comprehending how they keep going in such difficult circumstances. It is opportune that the witnesses are here today because yesterday we had post-European Council statements in the Dáil. One point I made was the word used about the EU approach is "comprehensive". We do not hear the word "caring" and we are dealing with extremely vulnerable people. The other very disturbing point is that while I acknowledge the EU is a major donor for development aid, we also know there will be increases in the European defence budget. There have to be alarm bells as to where all the money will come from and whether one budget will compete with the other. We know from what we hear which budget will be most at risk in that scenario. It is also disturbing when we see the words "migration" and "security" together. Part of me can understand the political situation in some European countries and the way in which they are trying to find a compromise to prevent the increase in far-right politics but we possibly are going too far bending over to them.

I acknowledge the work of the Naval Service and I hope its fine work in the Mediterranean is never compromised. Smugglers are making money through their disregard for human life. Are any of them being brought to justice? Where are the guards in the detention centres from? Are they Libyan nationals? Are they forced into being guards? What is the situation? I presume it is somewhat lucrative for them. Perhaps they are also coming out of very difficult situations.

We know that EU states say one of the ways to deal with migration is to tackle the root causes. I keep asking where do we see this actually happening. Where are they getting to those root causes with regard to conflict, famine, poverty and the abuse of human rights that cause people to take all of these risks? What would the witnesses have wanted to have heard from the European Council meeting? I know we are here to talk about Libya but I ask the witnesses to refer to Yemen because we do not hear very much about the humanitarian crisis there.