Dáil debates

Thursday, 16 November 2017

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Other Questions (Resumed)

Foreign Conflicts

1:25 pm

Photo of Simon CoveneySimon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I hope I am not someone who is prone to exaggeration but Yemen is the world's worst humanitarian crisis right now. It is a catastrophic situation in terms of the inability of essential humanitarian aid supplies to reach people who desperately need them. I have seen the images coming out of Yemen and believe me, I suspect we are not seeing the half of it. We have a political responsibility to try to find solutions and a responsibility to make financial contributions towards aid, which we are doing. To put this into context, in September, the World Food Programme, which is probably the largest aid organisation in the world under UN structures, reached 6.5 million people with food assistance. That is 2 million more than the population of this country. As a result of a brutal civil war that involves a number of countries outside Yemen and poses huge political challenges, the population is facing the devastating consequences of that conflict. We need to do what we can as a small country to ensure that we say-----

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