Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We are talking about funding that was allocated for a failed plan that took place against the backdrop of desperate need. I shall make a few points and ask questions about the bigger picture in respect of Europe and then I will ask a few questions about Ireland. Perhaps I will split my comments into two segments.

As the Minister of State has said, the fund was adopted in 2014 and added to in 2015 due to the growing crisis. As a result of an increased number of refugees there was a specific goal and commitment given to relocate 160,000 refugees. To date, only a quarter of the relocation has happened across Europe, which is frightening when one considers how people are living. For example, Camp Moria in Greece was originally built to house 2,000 people but housed 8,000 people during the summer. We know that children as young as ten years of age committed suicide and people had to stand in line for 12 hours a day to queue for food. Also, people have been stabbed while queuing for food, and as many as 80 people use the same shower and 70 people share the same toilet. The camp is an absolute hellhole from which people desperately want to escape. Against that backdrop, an underspend is appalling. As the Minister of State has said, €4 million of the fund is due to be given to Ireland.

In terms of Ireland's portion of the funding, we agreed to accept 2,622 people. Unfortunately, we accepted just half of that number. We did not accept anyone from Italy, as the Minister of State has said. Ireland is not the worst in Europe but we are near the bottom of the pile. Hungary and Poland took nobody and Austria took about 15 people.

Given that there are about 60,000 refugees in mainland Greece and 14,000 refugees on the Greek islands, what is Europe's plan to deal with these people? Can the Minister of State give a commitment that we will push, at a European level, to ensure that the refugees who want to get out of Greece will be relocated? Will Ireland continue to relocate refugees from Greece? Ireland's relocation scheme ended in March 2018. Why did that happen?

I note that the European Parliament's amendments to the proposal extended the range of nationalities eligible for relocation. This was a huge issue for the many thousands of people from Afghanistan, Iraq and Sudan, who did not qualify under the scheme. I presume that the Irish Government supports extending the range of nationalities. Will the Minister of State give a commitment that Ireland will fight to support the extension of the number of nationalities covered by the relocation scheme? Can he express his thoughts on the quota system? Recently Donald Tusk talked about quotas being divisive and ineffective. Can we take it from the current fund and the fact that one can spend the money on anything else other than relocation that the EU is moving away from relocating people? Are we leaving people in these Greek hellholes? What is the story? About 23,000 refugees arrived in Greece this year, which is a lot less than the 850,000 refugees in 2015. The decrease is not due to the need diminishing. The decrease is due to the fact that money has been spent on erecting border walls and fences, and the EU-Turkey deal. Is that the EU's policy for dealing with the problem? Does the EU just want to detain refugees in Greece and not let them come in? I would like the Minister of State to comment on the matter. Would the Chairman prefer if I asked my questions on Ireland after the Minister of State responds?