Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)

Recently, Deputies Spring, Ann Phelan and I were in Vienna as part of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe's parliamentary assembly. At that meeting, we discussed the issue in Syria. Unfortunately, it does not pertain directly to the work of the OSCE but we felt what was happening there was so grave that it was our duty as parliamentarians from across the OSCE regions to raise this matter. At the conclusion of the meeting, Parliamentary Assembly President Efthymiou, from Greece, read out the following statement the assembly:

As President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, I deeply regret the violence and loss of life in Syria. As OSCE participating states and partners for co-operation have expressed their concern about the current situation, I call for a full respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the country. I salute the journalists who have paid such a heavy price to keep the world informed.

At the end of that statement, the parliamentarians there supported him in it. As the head of the delegation that went to the OSCEPA, I repeat that statement here to voice my support for it. When we speak of intervention in this context, we are talking very much about humanitarian intervention. What we have seen in Syria is medical care being used as a tool for repression, and it is disgusting.

I would very much like to know what our policy is as a country. We were very quick to support NATO military intervention in Libya when it occurred, yet we are not so quick in this case. Why the discrepancy between the two?

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