Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Deputy that the scale of the crisis is enormous. Over 100,000 people have been killed and several million driven out of their homes, many of them into refugee camps in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, in particular. That, in turn, is placing great strain on these countries and their resources. The European Union's response, in which Ireland participates, is, in the first instance, on the humanitarian side. It has contributed €1.8 billion to date in humanitarian assistance, which is by far the biggest contribution in the world in dealing with the humanitarian crisis in Syria. It also played a very constructive role in bringing about a situation where the United States and Russia engaged and agreed a formula for dealing with the chemical weapons issue. As the Deputy knows, that formula has now been enshrined in the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and also by way of a Security Council resolution which is being implemented. It was late in coming but welcome nevertheless.

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