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

I thank our guests for their detailed presentation. It is frightening that Yemen is again facing the triple threat of war, disease and hunger. The reason our guests are before us is in order to try to create greater awareness among the public of the ongoing conflict, which is now in its fourth year. As my colleagues stated, unfortunately we do not hear as much about the conflict in the international broadcast media as we should. Our guests outlined very clearly that 24 million people, out of a population of 30 million, are in need of humanitarian assistance. There is major loss of life. The actions of the Saudi-led coalition in preventing food and medicine from getting to those who are starving, dying and suffering so much are absolutely reprehensible. It is so disappointing that Yemen continues to experience the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with a conflict in its fourth year. Mr. Clarken and Ms El-Mamoun both made the very valid point that Yemeni women and girls are exposed to many risks, including that of gender-based violence.

It is a major indictment of the international community that girls and women are subjected to further gender-based violence in addition to the suffering they already experience. Earlier, Mr. Clarken asked that the committee would write to the Tánaiste regarding the need for Ireland to continue to use its influence at every forum available, including through the European Union and the United Nations, in order to apply pressure on all parties to respect international humanitarian law. With the approval of the committee, I suggest that we would also write to the Tánaiste requesting an update on what diplomatic efforts we are pursuing with the Saudi authorities, particularly in the context of the blocking of essential foodstuffs and medicines getting through the port of Hodeidah. The full implementation of the Stockholm Agreement is critical.

We will also ask the Tánaiste to request that staff at the embassy in Saudi Arabia convene a meeting with their Saudi counterparts in order to raise all of the basic human rights issues of concern, including the lack of humanitarian assistance getting to the people in need. This committee has listened to many presentations but I do not know of any country in conflict where such a high proportion of the population was in need of humanitarian assistance. We heard that 24 million out of a total population of 30 million are in need of humanitarian assistance. We would be very pleased to write to the Tánaiste to ask him to pursue the issue through every forum that is available to him and also to continue to exert all the pressure we can through the diplomatic network in order to ensure that a peaceful resolution is found. It is terrible to think of the triple threat the country is facing, which the witnesses put so well, of war, disease and hunger. I thank both of our guests for their detailed presentation and I compliment those from Oxfam International and sister organisations that are working in Yemen in very difficult circumstances.