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

It is not true. There are more fundamental reasons Daesh and ISIL have come to the fore. It is not because of western interference. Nothing justifies the nihilism or fundamental callousness involved in these attacks on ordinary citizens in democracies across the world. Even in states that are not democracies, innocent civilians are being targeted and murdered and armchair generals are organising young people, infiltrating groups and bringing them over and influencing them to commit jihad and appalling suicidal acts against innocent civilians. I do not buy the "on the one hand or the other hand" argument. A vacuum was created in Iraq and in Syria and through that vacuum, ISIS has emerged. However, that does not justify what ISIS is doing.

I would be strongly supportive of and sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and do not agree with Israel's approach, but I draw a line at trying to say that conflict is somehow related to how ISIS behaves. There is no connection or relationship between them. ISIS is a fundamentalism that needs to be taken on. There is no logic or rationale to it other than to kill and maim people left, right and centre across the globe. A dangerous equivocation arises here, however.

That happens if, somewhat simplistically, the West is blamed for actions such as this. I understand there have been mistakes in foreign policy but, equally, there have been great successes. President Obama's initiative in his breakthrough with Iran, for example, is a very fundamental shift and it deserves to be lauded as a potential game changer. It has its critics but it was done with the European Union and other interested parties. Those talks on the nuclear issue and Iran went on for years and this has the potential to change the world order for the better. When ISIS or similar groups go to France or elsewhere, we rely on other democracies that share common values to pool intelligence and information to enable us to combat this. This is an evil and fundamentalism of a kind that must be attacked. We give groups succour when we talk "on the one hand but on the other hand". We need a comprehensive approach and we must be very clear in this House about that.

The Taoiseach referred to peace negotiations but the big issue in such talks remains the attempt to exclude the moderate opposition and Kurdish groups from the discussion. Will the Taoiseach assure us that in the European Union discussion this month, Ireland will speak up for the right of the moderate opposition in Syria and Kurdish groups to participate in these negotiations? The degree to which other countries have been attempting to undermine legitimate Kurdish aspirations is unacceptable, even as it goes to the extent of blunting the attack on ISIS in order to allow narrow interests come to the fore.

The most urgent issue of all remains helping refugees from this conflict. Current reports are that the humanitarian crisis is getting worse, with international aid clearly insufficient for the scale of the crisis. Essentially, this is the greatest humanitarian crisis of the 21st century and, at a minimum, we should be demanding at EU level that all refugees should have access to basic humanitarian conditions. I have raised the point with the Taoiseach before. The existing camps in Lebanon, Turkey and elsewhere are a factor in the migratory pull to Europe because they are not providing the very basics in terms of education, quality of life, work pathways and some sense of security or a context in which families can be raised with some degree of quality, involving education, access to health facilities and so on. When these are lacking, families will want to migrate and leave those camps. A major humanitarian effort is required by the European Union to support those camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and elsewhere and provide those required resources to enable people to sustain themselves with some degree of dignity and quality in those camps. That would do much to stem the tide of migration that is occurring and which will occur again if something fundamental does not happen with respect to the scale and nature of the humanitarian aid currently being made available globally.

The most fundamental point is of course that the conflict should be brought to some sort of conclusion, even a cessation of hostilities to enable life to be rebuilt in Syria and controlled by legitimate governments put in place to prevent the continuing exploitation by ISIS of the vacuum created in the current conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

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