Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Tánaiste's statement. He is adopting the right approach. It is an important issue and I tabled a number of Priority Questions on it over the past months in view of the correspondence we receive from interest groups and the absolute humanitarian crisis that has erupted. Some 70,000 people have lost their lives. The Save the Children report referred to boys and girls being maimed, tortured and killed. Is the EU conveying to the United Nations that the United Nations has failed to act decisively on this issue? We know the type of veto Russia has been using. Can the Tánaiste assure us the Assad regime is not directing humanitarian aid to its supporters? The Tánaiste has received correspondence and seen media reports on aid being diverted by the Assad regime so the people most in need do not receive much-needed and belated humanitarian aid from across the world, including the European Union and the Irish overseas development aid programme.

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