Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Following on from Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett's contribution, would the Taoiseach agree that the G8 summit should be welcomed as providing a forum in which the wealthiest and most powerful countries in the world can discuss these issues? Without that forum, the vacuum that would be created is the very same vacuum which led to two world wars on this Continent and millions of deaths in the last century. Deputy Boyd Barrett might do well to reflect on that.

Will the Taoiseach update the House on the opportunities that might exist on the fringes of the summit for bilateral meetings? He mentioned meetings with the Canadian and Japanese Prime Ministers. Does he envisage opportunities at the summit itself for meetings of that nature?

Deputy Mary Lou McDonald alluded to the upsetting report on RTE news last night from a former Minister of State in this House, in his new role at UNICEF, in regard to the crisis in Syria. Is it the Taoiseach's intention, as President of the European Council, to bring that issue to the fore at the G8 summit? What we saw on the news last night was harrowing.

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