Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In terms of the Irish Government support, as well as at political level, in the context of our participation at the UN and the passing of resolutions and the need to ensure that the resolutions are implemented, we also have expressed our support for members of the Rohingya community here in Ireland, and 82 members of the community were settled in Carlow and five others were settled in Dublin in 2009 in response to the UNHCR's call for temporary arrangements to be made until the situation in region stabilises.

In terms of aid, currently the European Union is providing around €70 million to the people of Rakhine state, most of which is used to meet the humanitarian needs of the people of the region. The EU will provide €688 million in development aid to Myanmar over the period 2014 to 2020. The House might like to be aware that since 2007, more than €7 million has been provided by Irish Aid, through non-governmental organisations and Irish missionaries, for both long-term development and emergency and recovery responses in Myanmar. Last December Ireland announced an additional programme of funding worth more than €500,000 for a bilateral development assistance programme. The same level of funding has also been agreed for this year. Funding of €800,000 was provided to Trócaire, World Vision and Concern in response to the cyclone in 2008 and, in addition, the Irish Centre for Human Rights received €88,000 for research in human rights.

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