Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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First, we must acknowledge that the international community faces serious challenges in delivering humanitarian assistance. We have been working through a number of NGOs and United Nations agencies. I admire the work they are doing in trying to get aid through. Inside Syria there are excessive controls on aid agencies working in the country. The fragmentation of the armed opposition and the intensity of the military confrontations have made the operating environment extremely volatile and insecure, particularly in opposition-controlled areas. Restrictions imposed by the Assad regime, combined with logistical constraints and increasing insecurity, make it very difficult to access populations which are in need of humanitarian assistance. As an example of the difficulties faced in getting aid through, the journey between Damascus and Aleppo would normally take three hours, but now takes three days through approximately 50 different checkpoints.

This is the biggest humanitarian crisis of our times. The scale of this is enormous. The UN call was for €5.2 billion in aid. It is the biggest aid effort of all times. Approximately 43% of that has been delivered, which is huge, but there is a big demand for it. We have called for a pause in hostilities to enable humanitarian aid to get through. In welcoming what has been agreed between the US and Russia on the chemical weapons issue, we can build on a number of points. First, there was a pause in hostilities to allow the UN inspectors to do their work. That can and should be replicated for the delivery of humanitarian aid. That is an immediate priority and we are seeking it. Second, we hope the engagement by both the United States and Russia which produced the agreement on chemicals weapons - which must be implemented - can be built on and give momentum for the convening of Geneva 2 discussions and conference. There must be a political settlement and dialogue that gives rise to a new Syria, a state of peace and an end to the hostilities.

We were one of the first countries to call for what was happening in Syria to be referred to the International Criminal Court. A very strong body of international opinion from many countries has similarly called for it. That remains our position and we will continue to do that. Clearly one of the frustrations for the international community has been the Security Council's inability to agree a strong, robust response to the Syrian crisis.

It is important that nobody decide to give up on issues such as Syria being dealt with through the United Nations. It is also important that the UN processes are not bypassed and that we all recognise that the United Nations is the forum through which the international community should appropriately make its response. However, in particular, the permanent members of the Security Council have to increasingly understand their responsibility in this privileged position, with all of the influence, authority and power that it confers on them, and this capacity is to the international community, not just their own states or alliances. The Security Council will have to be seized of the outcome of the agreement on the chemical weapons issue, but I hope in the period ahead that it will reach agreement and, in particular, that all of the permanent members will exercise that responsibility for the wider international community.