Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

The reality is that those ending up on European shores after making a horrendous journey to reach here constitute just the tip of the iceberg. Millions of the refugees are confined to the borders of Lebanon and Turkey with more in the Middle East-Europe region. Half the world's refugees come from Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia. Last year we allowed six flights go from the United States to Afghanistan carrying hundreds of tonnes of ammunition and I have no doubt, because of the experience of what happened in Iraq where weapons ended up in the hands of the opposition, that some of that weaponry that transited through our shores ended up in the hands of the Taliban and ISIS, the very ones who are playing a role in driving these refugees out of their homes in the first place.

This is one of the key points we want to register. I would welcome far more than 4,000 refugees here, but we really need a debate in Europe about the reasons these people are being made refugees in the first place. Our culpability in that rests at Shannon Airport and we must seriously look at what is being transited through there in our name, the name of a neutral country.

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