Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Hundreds of thousands are trying to get across the Mediterranean, not because they are chasing wonderful welfare benefits in Europe, but because their lives have been destroyed in the countries from which they have come. Sadly we do not seem to have a problem with the US using Shannon Airport as a military base to cause severe destruction in places such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. We have refused to call Israel to account in Palestine. Of the refugees in the world today 5 million are Palestinian, 4 million are Syrian, 2.9 million are Afghans and 1.8 million are Iraqis.

There are serious issues at stake. Obviously those who have the gold make the rules. Even though the riches might be unequally divided, Europe and the US are rich in no small part because other places are poor. The developed world has much to answer for that in that regard.

I welcome Ireland's decision to take in approximately 300 refugees; it is a small start. Given that they have been sanctioned by the UN as worthy of protection, will they go into direct provision or will be they given proper facilities to participate in Irish society and look for work?

I know there is a second stage to this and there is an effort to redistribute many of the refugees who have already arrived in Europe, mainly in Italy and Greece at the moment. Will the Government take a positive approach to this and seek to take in some in some of these people when they come to be redistributed in a few weeks' time?

An EU Foreign Ministers' meeting on Monday will consider a proposal to launch some military missions on Libya to attack the boats that could carry potential migrants across the sea. When our Minister goes there on Monday I urge him to advocate that this would be sheer lunacy. Most of these people are fishermen. The boats are involved in fishing. They get bought up overnight to carry migrants the next day at a high price. The idea of bombing them is crazy. We should never have agreed to the bombing of Libya in the first place. NATO has destroyed the place. The idea of another military adventure into Libya makes no sense. I advocate that the Government refuse to sign up to such an idea.

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