Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to say a few words on this very serious issue, which is the EU migrant and refugee crisis. What struck me about the contributions of other Members was the seriousness with which they have looked at this. The previous speaker mentioned the inhumane term, "the migrant season", but what was on our television screens last summer and across the newspapers of the world outraged us. I have been looking at it and considering it very carefully. Many fine books have been written, and continue to be published, by many fine authors on the humanitarian crisis that followed the Second World War, how that developed, the various concentration camps, the various issues which arose and the reasons for that humanitarian crisis. Historians have devoted a massive amount of time to it. Almost every Sunday, in the various magazines of the Sunday newspapers, there is a review of another great book on the humanitarian crisis that followed the Second World War, or that took place during the Second World War. There are also many commentaries and discussions on the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, and other massive theses written on what has happened in the world.

As we look at the crisis that has unfolded over recent years, particularly since the Arab Spring and what happened five years ago, we have to be very honest with ourselves. We can challenge what we are doing as a European Community and as a part of that in terms of the Turkish deal and any of the other matters put forward but we have to be very serious with ourselves. The United Nations is very well-resourced and has had huge respect since it was established after the Second World War but does it have the teeth? People spoke during the debate about the source of the crisis and referred to Ireland during the Famine years and the abject poverty and the horrendous conditions our people faced at the time. We have to go to the source of the problem. The source of the problem is what is happening in Syria and other places. Why is that allowed? Why is that ungovernable territory, or ungoverned territory, as it certainly is governable, not being dealt with by the United Nations? If we look at our own humanitarian crisis, which we had during the Famine, there is no doubt that the source was the total disrespect paid to the crisis by the central government we were under at the time.

To solve the issue, we have to deal with the humanitarian crisis. A total of 1 million displaced people are on beaches and in shantytowns. We must pay tribute to the many people working there in a voluntary capacity. Many fine people are leaving their own cushy numbers and are going out to work on the humanitarian crisis in a voluntary capacity. We would like to pay tribute to all of those people from Ireland who have gone to various crisis points in the world over the past centuries. During the humanitarian crisis in Rwanda, a constituent of mine and a family friend, Fr. Bertie Doherty, was out there. He met the then Minister for Foreign Affairs, David Andrews, back in 1998 and outlined the crisis. It was almost like feeding animals what they were trying to do to try to bring some sort of normality. Many fine people from religious orders have gone out in a voluntary capacity to crises in the world. We have to pay tribute to them and accept the great work they have done.

We have to accept what the Naval Service is doing but as a global community, we have to ask whether the United Nations, which is well-resourced and which has people of very fine status and very hard-working and diligent people, has the real power to tackle the crisis. This is has been going on for five years, since 2011, and it has manifested itself over the past year and a half or two years in particular because of what it happening in the home countries of the people involved. None of the people queueing up on the beaches or the 1 million people who are displaced want to leave their homes but because of persecution and the huge challenges they face in carrying out their daily lives, they are leaving their homes with a view to going somewhere better. It is perceived that life in Europe is far better. They are making gambles beyond gambles to try to get there.

The United Nations is the international body and the European Community has been established. If we strip it all back, the European Community was established after the humanitarian crisis of the Second World War and what ensued from 1939 to 1945. Many people visit the bureaucratic city that is Brussels, and some people will say it is a bureaucratic nightmare, but it certainly is far better to have a European Community that is working to ensure we will never again repeat the mistakes made during the First World War and the Second World War. Therefore, the European Community has been successful in this. Now it is a challenge for the international community to come together to try to solve this issue. As I have stated, we have to deal with the crisis that is there but we have to challenge the international community because we can no longer pay lip-service to it.

The word "humanitarian" was mentioned in many of the fine contributions made by other Members with regard to the humanitarian crisis and the humanitarian work being done and I commend them for this.

However, let us be absolutely practical and honest with ourselves. The source of the problem was the 2011 Arab Spring. The crisis is continuing to manifest itself and to generate more refugees. It is harrowing to see women, children and families torn apart and to see what is going on, but are we doing enough? Are there too many powerful states in the world that are not being challenged or asked to account for themselves? What is going on in those states? Are we not proactive enough? Is it time that the international community considered the structures of the United Nations? It is a very fine body with very fine people, but is it time to say where that crisis in 2011 started and to examine the various funding mechanisms that were given to the rebels and other people involved? Is there a major issue worldwide?

In the 1960s and 1970s the major issue was the nuclear arms race, and huge efforts were made on an international-community-wide basis to try to bring that under control. The Middle East and north Africa certainly have been very challenged and troubled for a long time. We are part of the European Union. That is a very powerful international body. There are other countries and conglomerations of countries that need to play their part, but the source of the problem must be tackled. There is an old saying about teaching a man to fish or giving him a fish. We must turn our focus back on these countries and see whether we can get proper governance in them so that people can live in their own communities in a safe and friendly manner. That is the only way that we can reasonably tackle this humanitarian crisis.

Other Deputies have asked what Ireland is doing. However, we need to make sure that we challenge the international community and tell it that it is time to step up to the plate. In 50 years' time many fine historians will again be writing about the humanitarian crisis of these years in the very same way that they write about the humanitarian crisis during the Second World War and its aftermath and interpret the causes of it. Now is our time to stand up and say that these are the crises that are facing us internationally at the moment and that we need to do something more proactive about them as an international community than what we have been doing to date.

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