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

Very good. My first question is about the summit meeting and the Government's view on the position of the Hungarian Government, which, from the outset of this refugee crisis, has been seen to be, to put it mildly, very much removed from the core values of the European Union. The action and the language articulated by the Prime Minister of Hungary and the sense of putting up the wall to stop genuine refugees fleeing war seems to fly completely in the face of the Geneva Convention and strains the idea of European Union solidarity to its very core. It seems there has been a reluctance on behalf of the Government to call it as it is. I do not get a sense of that within the European Union summits or the various meetings that have taken place. I accept that people have to focus on helping the refugees, but Hungary seems to have set a standard and a pattern that has been very negative in terms of the way the crisis is unfolding, and particularly how Europe's response to the crisis is unfolding.

My second question relates to the Irish State's support for the camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. As I said earlier, the European Union budget was so restrictive that it has reduced the capacity of the Union as a whole to make substantial provision to improve the quality of life in those camps. If we did that, it could reduce the need for people to leave the camps for a better quality of life. Very basic services are not up to standard. I accept that those countries have taken in millions of people. How much funding to date have we given to the camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey? Have we a figure for that? Is the Government considering providing a much greater level of financial support, over and above what we have done to date, to those camps to reduce the numbers fleeing into Europe and to try to improve the overall quality of life, given the difficulty at a European Union budgetary level? The Taoiseach gave a general figure of approximately €5 million to the UNHCR, but I take it that is ongoing Irish Aid funding. What is required is an out-of-the-ordinary allocation to deal with the quality of life in the camps.

With regard to the Turkish situation, is the Minister of State comfortable that we should barter EU membership or access to core policies in return for Turkey's acquiescence in facilitating a better quality of life in the camps? There is a major geopolitical issue here in terms of Turkey and the European Union, but in more recent times, Turkey's attitude to an independent media, for example, has been worrying. There is a drift from democratic norms within Turkey, with very little regard for minority rights and so forth.

Comments were made earlier that I ignored any role of responsibility on the part of Western powers, the EU or the United States in the Middle East. That is not an accurate depiction of what I said, but I stand over what I said in terms of the reluctance of many to criticise Russia's role in supporting the Assad regime. There is a tendency in this House to always blame the US to the exclusion of anybody else. Deputy Wallace spreads the blame around, but there is always a tendency here to do that. On a range of issues - the partition of Ukraine by the Russians and so on - there is an extraordinary silence on the part of Sinn Féin. Obviously, it is developing a very strong relationship with the Russian authorities.

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