Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman for the kind introduction and the opportunity to speak. I agree with my colleagues, Deputies Brady and Stanton, that the great thing about today is that we are bringing this horrendous conflict back into focus for those who are observing the meeting and also putting it centre stage for our agenda on the UN Security Council. That is a great achievement from today.

As Deputy Clarke said, it is an horrendous, shocking and appalling story. There is not much point in my repeating the statistics. There is such human tragedy behind each of them, whether it is displaced people, people who have died or people below the poverty line, now at 80%. It is an horrendous story. We all understand that access is critical in the delivery of the humanitarian aid. The witnesses are very welcome here and we admire what they do in that regard.

UN Resolution 2533 is up for renewal. I presume the witnesses are not too fearful about that. It is our job to assist aid agencies at UN level and I have no doubt we will. While the witnesses cite it as crucial, I presume they are not concerned that there will be any diminution of access. If they are concerned, perhaps they might elaborate on that so that it can inform any report or commentary we might make to the Minister for Foreign Affairs in the UN context.

Dr. Rouba Mhaissen made the stark remark that she thought the peace process was in great jeopardy. While as Mr. O'Keeffe said at the outset, we do not want to stray too much into the area of politics, I ask her to elaborate on that remark. Can she offer any direction to us or any hope that we might be able to achieve anything there during our tenure on the UN Security Council?

At the outset Deputy Brady said there will need to be - we might have a moral leadership role here - a restrained approach from some in the international community not to be unhelpfully involved. I thank the witnesses and I admire what they do. This is an horrific story and has been for several years.