Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will write to the Minister of State. I think that we are generally well aware that there has been a clampdown in Europe and that, rather than facilitating refugees, more fences at borders are being erected to prevent them from getting in. I do not know if the Minister of State is aware of the questions two weeks ago to the Department of Defence when the Minister of State, Deputy Kehoe, admitted that in recent months the Irish mission in the Mediterranean has been a military one rather than a rescue one. We did some wonderful work there in the early years but the last boat came home without saving anyone's life. The Minister of State admitted two weeks ago, having denied it earlier in the year, as did the Minister, Deputy Coveney, that this was a military mission. What in God's name are we doing involved in a military mission preventing refugees crossing the Mediterranean and sending them back to absolute misery in Libya?