Mr. Dominic McSorley:

The truth is that we have seen an erosion of news media coverage of many of the crisis countries. Afghanistan is not on the agenda any more, and it was top of the news everywhere while there was an evacuation. It is not talked about, and there are simple solutions. We need to talk about what we need to do. Some $7 billion of Afghanistan's reserves remain frozen, largely by the US federal authorities, as well as the $2 billion that is frozen by European banks, including those in Germany. It must be released. There is a campaign to try to get that money moved rapidly back into where it should be, even if it is set up through a trust fund if it is not going directly into the authorities.

Every crisis is unique. It is unique in terms of its complexity and its scale, but often crises involve similar characteristics. We need only look back 11 years to Syria. Ukraine is in danger of becoming the next Syria. If we look back and ask what we would have done differently, we would have ramped up diplomacy much more in the early days. There was much more talk about politicisation, militarisation and ending the war. Ireland is already playing a unique role. Ms Geraldine Byrne Nason, the Irish ambassador, has been a strong and compelling voice working within a structure that we know is hampered, but has managed to reach out to the member states and to push beyond the confines of the UN Security Council. That is critical. I believe there is an opportunity. The last time we saw the scale of response in this regard was either Haiti or the tsunami, because people relate. There is extraordinary generosity from the public from the neighbouring countries, such as Poland, and we have to capitalise on that. There is extraordinary solidarity, with Ukrainian flags being flown everywhere across this country. That has to be matched very clearly through the EU. I do not believe the EU is taking a strong enough stance with regard to negotiations and being at the table. It is being left to the US, and it is becoming more partisan.

To return to the Deputy's point, there are some initiatives happening. We are now seeing that the appetite of people to listen to what is happening on the ground has never diminished. Human response and empathy for what people are witnessing have not diminished. However, the political will to end these appears to be the real challenge. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney, was before the committee. The four or five steps that he laid out are exactly the ones that Ireland should take. Ireland has a roadmap, it just has to push it and really focus on Brussels.