Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yes, I am aware of the Walk of Tears and the incredible story of the Choctaw Indians who sent us the equivalent of $10,000 for famine relief.

The purpose of the meeting of the European Council on Thursday is to endorse the ten-point plan put together yesterday by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Ministers for security and home affairs in Luxembourg. Clearly, there is an immediate catastrophe facing us. People are being loaded onto unseaworthy craft now on the shores of Libya. Many of them have travelled from Somalia, Mali and other locations, and others are fleeing the conflicts in both Syria and Libya. They all want to cross the Mediterranean, and Malta, Lampedusa and Italy are the first ports of call. Clearly, this is a matter of the utmost seriousness. What can Ireland do about this? It can contribute with other bigger nations with greater resources. The Deputy is well aware that what is in our own DNA, given our history, leads us to be one of the most humanitarian countries around, proportionately speaking. We will continue to be that. As I stated, between the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Minister for Justice and Equality and the Minister for Defence, we will contribute to this debate on Thursday in the hope of saving the lives of those who have just left the shores of Libya in craft that will never reach the far side of the Mediterranean. The ten-point plan exists for everybody.

The pirates, smugglers and unscrupulous people are using their deadly opportunity to make money by putting innocent people, who are fleeing war, rape, pillage and all kinds of inhumanity, on boats to cross the Mediterranean from the Libyan shore in the knowledge that there is sometimes neither skipper, captain, steward nor compass to get them to the far side. Mare Nostrum did save many lives. I expect that the meeting on Thursday will result in a much more focused and immediate response in terms of greater surveillance, activity and humanitarian relief and a greater opportunity to search for and rescue these innocent people. From a political point of view, addressing the causes of the desperation of so many people, requiring them to leave for Europe, must be dealt with in the bigger political field. As the Deputy is well aware, that is an enormous challenge.

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