Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity, on foot of reviewing the European Council meeting in December, to discuss some of the wider and bigger issues that are happening in our world, particularly the issues of security, migration, and the accession of new countries into the EU, which I understand was one of the main items up for discussion at the meeting. Many of my thoughts in this regard are informed by our own recent Oireachtas visit to Cairo. As well as raising the case of Mr. Ibrahim Halawa and the need for his return home to Dublin, the whole experience gave us the opportunity to gain a wider understanding of what is happening in the Middle East and near the south and south-east borders of the EU.

More than anything else I was drawn to the meeting we had with the Secretary General of the Arab League. It was a two-hour discussion that was hugely informative and interesting. It backs up some of the analysis that this Parliament has had with regard to what has happened in the Middle East over the last number of decades and, picking up on the points made by Deputies Clare Daly and Wallace, the issue of Palestine was centre stage. It was a reflection of the Irish position and the Secretary General at the time said that Ireland was different. He said that we had taken a position over the years in support of the Palestinian people that is recognised and important. At that critical time in south Lebanon when local populations were threatened by militias following an Israeli invasion he recalled the fact that the Irish UN soldiers held the line. The soldiers had said "Stop, you shall not go further". The Secretary General compared that to what had happened at Srebrenica and other locations where the UN had not held the line. Ireland has a very proud and a very important record with our troops still in Lebanon, the Golan Heights and elsewhere. It copperfastened in my own mind - the Secretary General of the Arab League set it out in very clear terms - the roles of some other European countries. The invasion of Iraq left a country destroyed without any institutions and with a vacuum that was filled by the likes of ISIS. In Libya in recent years, French, British and American bombing had left the country similarly completely destabilised without any institutions. All the 25 year olds there now have Kalashnikovs in their hands and 600,000 people are waiting to use that place in a vacuum as a jumping-off point to Europe. The point was reiterated that Ireland should continue with a really strong position of neutrality and should not go down the road of an aggressive European intervention - as done by some countries - in our neighbouring areas because it does not work. Our approach of supporting United Nations missions and maintaining a neutrality is hugely important and it was copperfastened from that visit.

Following that visit to Cairo I was very fortunate to be able to proceed on to visit Turkey. I was with some NGOs visiting refugee camps on the Turkey-Syria border. We went right up to the border town of Reyhanli and Antakya, which is a city near the Syrian border. That visit also informs me with regard to the main item on the European Council on what are the dealings and relationships with Turkey and where is the accession process going. The Green Party condemned the clampdown in Turkey last year with the imprisonment of some 40,000 people following the coup and the imprisonment of people who work in the media, which we must stand up against. If, however, we simply demonise Turkey and see ourselves retreating back to Christendom with a hard border with any of the neighbours to the east and south, I do not believe that would work for the EU, Turkey or the whole wider region. If one looks at the history of Turkey's attempt at accession to the European Union - stretching back to 1987 - and especially the actions of countries such as Austria and France when it came to the crunch in the middle of the last decade, we basically welched on any deals and stepped back. The EU said that it would not progress the process. That, more than anything else, may have undermined the development of democratic and other systems that were advancing within Turkey. We should be very careful in going towards a divided world, particularly where the EU develops these hard borders with Turkey and other countries. The EU should, through influence and diplomatic relations, be looking to try to address whatever human rights or other issues arise in neighbouring countries but should do so with a view to long-term co-operation. In this world, we cannot manage migration or security just by going back to a fortress Europe approach.

From personal experience in visiting the camps and speaking with NGOs in these areas, we should be slightly careful about depicting as brilliant our treatment of migrants and refugees. I believe those refugees on the Greek islands, in the port town of Piraeus, in Scaramanga outside Athens and in Thessaloniki are, in many cases, in much worse conditions than the 2.7 million people who have been assimilated into Turkey after coming out of the Syrian crisis. It is not ideal; there are incredibly difficult circumstances and one would like to see better services and provisions. I am not too sure, however, that we in Europe can say how poorly Turkey has managed the situation when it has taken in 2.7 million, while we are leaving some 50,000 people stranded in the Greek islands and refugee camps. They are living under nothing but a basic tent in one of the coldest winters in that region in a long time.

I know this situation is far distant from us. It is as far from our borders as could be but in our engagement there is a responsibility on us, and on the particular voice Ireland has in Europe, which is one that stands up for a neutral non-militaristic solution or approach to these divisions in the world. We should be using that voice to try to create an environment of co-operation rather than the division that is increasingly happening in this time.

I read the Council's conclusions and the Taoiseach's speech with interest. It seems that Ireland has not taken a particularly strong position on the issue of the shutting down of the accession talks for Turkey at the present time. I believe Ireland should be willing to be international if we are aiming to take a place on the UN Security Council in the early part of the next decade. If we are to garner support for that role it behoves us to be internationalist in our thinking. Ireland benefits hugely as part of a globalised trading system. Most of the large international companies with offices based in Ireland set up their Europe, Middle East and Africa offices here. It behoves us to take the benefits of that - as we are doing - but to apply it in a responsible foreign policy that sees us taking a slightly different tack to some of our nearest neighbours, especially as Brexit occurs and as Britain takes a completely different stance and does not align with whatever the European Union is doing. That is all the more reason for us to put our resources into that.

One recommendation from the Secretary General of the Arab League was that we should be visiting those countries on a much more regular basis if we do aim to try to take that role in the UN Security Council. While it is not easy - and I know all of our time is very short and there is a whole range of different pressing issues - I believe Ireland should be looking to send further parliamentary delegations to visit Turkey or other countries in the Middle East, which is currently on fire. That allocation of resources, while it is a long-term investment, would be significant and important for the State. By visiting, talking and listening and by adapting that neutral, non-aligned, diplomatic approach, Ireland has a particular and specific role to play in Palestine and in Syria. It is ridiculous that we have a Syrian peace process that is now being managed by Russia, Turkey and Iran and that the European Union seems to have abdicated its position, other than supporting the occasional drone strike from the US and others. This is the wrong approach. We will not solve the threat of ISIS, no matter what President Trump thinks, by bombing people from a distance in a way that is just as terrifying as the bombing attacks that occur in our areas. We in the EU have a responsibility to expand the whole philosophy of peaceful, democratic collaboration, human rights and rule of law. This is done by talking with people and working with people; not by setting up further barriers or creating further tensions by the construction of walls, the use of drone strikes and other military means. That is not our way and we should stand up for the alternative approach.

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