Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This group has quite a number of questions covering a range of issues from me and other Members of the House. It says something about how often questions to the Taoiseach have been cancelled that some of these questions have been on the paper for three months. It has taken three months to reach some of them.

The Taoiseach said he had not written or spoken to Jean-Claude Juncker on bank recapitalisation since his appointment. In response to previous questions, the Taoiseach confirmed that he did not ask him for support on bank-related debt before agreeing to his appointment as President of the European Commission. The Taoiseach confirmed that he did not ask Donald Tusk about bank-related debt before his appointment as President of the European Council. The Taoiseach made a big song and dance on 12 June, as did the then Tánaiste, Deputy Eamon Gilmore, who described it as a seismic shift. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, said some €6 billion could come Ireland's way and speculated about how much Ireland would benefit from what was then lauded as the separation of bank debt and sovereign debt. Nothing has happened and the Taoiseach has gone strangely quiet. He has not explained to me why he did not raise this with Jean-Claude Juncker. He is President of the European Commission. Why has the Taoiseach not raised the matter with Donald Tusk before his appointment as President of the European Council? Why is there a reluctance to raise this issue when we were told two years ago that this was a seismic change and a seismic shift?

It seems the Taoiseach is waiting until the next crisis comes along and hoping something can be agreed that can be extended automatically to Ireland, just like earlier deals concerning interest rates that Ireland did not deliver but piggybacked on. What is the Taoiseach planning now if he is not going to ask these people or put the case to them? Will we be seeking retrospective relief from Europe?

It is accepted that the Syrian crisis is one of the greatest humanitarian crises in many years and it has the capacity to turn into a disaster on a scale that is truly shocking in the 21st century. The estimate of the number of displaced people is as high as 9 million and there is no sign of any solution. During the summit, support for the refugees was discussed. An entire generation is at risk in terms of the lack of basic sanitation, meagre diets, chronic uncertainty and very little access to education for children and young people.

To be fair to Europe, it has done a lot but it has a lot more to do. Europe should step up its support for Syrian refugees. There is a global crisis with Islamist extremist violence. There is today’s shocking event in Pakistan in which more than 100 children were slaughtered. One must ask, "In the name of what?" It was absolutely barbaric. It is just one appalling episode on top of another one every day. It is as if the values that we cherish in Western democracies, namely the upholding of the basic rights of the individual and of women, are being negated, undermined and reversed in many parts of the globe. This will be of major consequence to Europe over the next several years. We saw the situation yesterday in Sydney, Australia. This type of extreme violence can visit anybody at any time on any street in any country in the world. In Pakistan today, six individuals with suicide vests attached to them were sent into a military school. In Sydney yesterday, innocent people having a coffee in a shop died because of extremism.

Likewise, in the Middle East itself, there have been appalling atrocities. We have heard pleas from minority Christian groups who are being massacred - ethnically cleansed from their regions. Very often their voices are not heard because of the difficulty of getting heard above all the other noise. I use the phrase “noise” in a cautionary way, in the sense that there is so much going on that terrible atrocities very often go unnoticed. Many Christian minorities in the Middle East have been dealt a severe blow as a result of the turbulence, turmoil and terrorism in the region, particularly at the hands of ISIS. Globally and at European level, the bar needs to be raised in the response. I am not talking about an immediate knee-jerk response but a more deliberate and considered one, grounded in an understanding of what is happening. We need education and proper resourcing of the forces of good to deal with these situations. Extremism thrives on counter-extremism. We need a more immediate- to long-term scientific and educated response to what is going on, because it is truly calamitous and creating grave uncertainty across the world, as well as death and destruction. This should feature as a number one priority at the next European Council summit.

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