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

I was at a Foreign Affairs Council meeting on Monday and a General Affairs Council meeting yesterday when I read and heard about the plight of the new vessel, the MV Lifeline, which is on its way to Malta. It was unable to dock elsewhere in the Mediterranean. There are 230 migrants on that ship. The conditions on the ship are not good. I felt that Ireland should show some solidarity with Malta but, more importantly, with the refugees on board that ship. Having spoken to the Taoiseach and Minister for Justice and Equality to make sure that we were all on the same page, which we were, I offered that Ireland would take 10% of those migrants in order to process their asylum applications here.

Other countries are also making offers and I felt that, by making an early offer in this regard, Ireland would trigger other countries to do the same. Malta has been negotiating with many other EU member states to try to share the burden. Malta is a very small member state. It fears that it might be asked to do too much, particularly in view of the resources it has available to it. We will accept in the region of 25 migrants here and go through the process to ensure it is done properly. Other countries have also made offers to try to deal with this particular case. This is the symptom of a much bigger problem that really needs a resolution in the next few days when the European leaders meet.

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