Professor Paul McMaster:

I will respond first and Ms McKenna might then comment.

Médecins Sans Frontières, in general, has been immensely appreciative of the support the Government has given through Irish Aid, but we would not come to members looking for support in any conflict country in which we are engaged. The safety of our personnel on the ground is based on everyone seeing them as neutral, impartial and apoliltical. That means that in countries in which Médecins Sans Frontières works where there is significant conflict we do not accept funding from any institution, whether it be the DFID, ECHO or the United Nations. We use funds very generously given by individuals across the world. I repeat that we are immensely grateful for the support Irish Aid has been able to give for vaccinations against TB, malaria and cholera and without that help we could not have done so much, but in our work in conflict areas such as in Somalia, Syria and Afghanistan, Médecins Sans Frontières will not ask for or accept support from any institution. That allows us to use the jargon that our organisation is neutral and impartial. This allows our medics to say the medical needs of a community are A, B and C. They can say: "Paul McMaster, sort yourself out medically to deliver it." We will not be influenced by the Syrian authorities. If they say we can do this and that and our medical teams do not say is the priority, we will not do it. Neither will we be influenced by the fighters who say they want us to do this or that. We are there to support the civilians caught up in the midst of the conflict, as people are in places such as Syria. I ask Ms McKenna to forgive me if that is not the right answer, but I want to say how generous people in this country have been and we hope this will continue in the future. We would not ask members for support for Syria because the safety of people on the ground can only be based on it being understood they are neutral and impartial. Whatever views the teams may hold privately, they are not ones espoused by the organisation.