Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I do not know if the Minister is aware of it but Deputy Daly and I have been in Syria twice in the past two years. When one goes there, the story is very different from what one reads in the media or hears on RTÉ. In the past two years, since the government defeated the jihadists in many areas of the country, more than 1.5 million Syrians have returned. I do not want to go into the politics of it but it was disappointing that European governments and the EU played a part in funding the jihadists who caused so much of the trouble in the first place. I do not understand the rationale behind the Department's position. For example, when we were in Calais, we saw that the most unfortunate and poorest refugees in Calais were Afghan and Kurdish but it looks to us that they need more help than anyone else. Is there a reason the Department has chosen the Syrians and Eritreans for the most needed attention rather than other nationalities? It is only a matter of time before serious numbers of people move from Yemen, where the worst humanitarian disaster on the planet is currently taking place, and we are still supping tea with the Saudis. What is the rationale behind not being more facilitating to those other nationalities?