Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I echo the points made by Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan in respect of the settlements in Palestine. The activities of the Israelis are absolutely reprehensible.

My main comment relates to the refugee issue. I welcome the fact that the last European Council agreed that member states had to increase their relocation pledges according to allocation and that from December the Council would seek to have a pledge on a monthly basis. I would welcome that arrangement and it is something we could monitor more closely. I was glad to hear Tusla had three social workers in France last week. They were there to try to activate the pledge made by this House to take 200 unaccompanied minors from the camps. Those minors had been displaced through the routing of the Calais camp and so on. Although I welcome the move, it is not clear whether sufficient resources are being made available to the social work teams in place to facilitate these unaccompanied minors who have been displaced in France as well as the more normal ones, for want of a better term.

Only 520 refugees arrived in Ireland last year under the resettlement programme. Moreover, only 240 refugees were relocated here from Greece and Italy under the relocation programme. Let us put that in perspective. In the first two weeks of this year, 219 refugees died while trying to cross the Mediterranean to get to Europe. They died because of Europe's deadly border policies. They died because of the walls being built in Slovenia, Greece, Bulgaria and Hungary. Those walls are being built to prevent people fleeing conflict from taking safer land routes to get to Europe. It is somewhat sickening to listen to the good European liberals cry bloody murder at Donald Trump's pledge to build a wall between the United States and Mexico, especially since the European Union has encircled itself with walls in the past four years. Let us not forget that. The newly beefed up European border and coast guard, Frontex, had its inauguration last October. It took place at a checkpoint in the middle of a border fence between Bulgaria and Turkey. The fence was made of metal and razor wire and many people have died at that spot. That event was reprehensible as well.

The points made about Turkey at the meeting are concerning. Of more concern is the shakiness of the rotten deal reached with Turkey in the first instance. The deteriorating situation in Turkey means that tens of thousands of refugees are now trapped on Greek islands in overcrowded and dangerous conditions.

The points made at the Council urging swift action to implement the EU-NATO joint declaration signed in December are also a matter of concern. The declaration amounts to a hawkish commitment to a more militarised EU. It would lead to more investment in arms and to the military working hand in glove with NATO, amplifying defence spending and so on. This is completely incompatible with our position on neutrality. We should be standing full square against it.

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