Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I did not offer any profanity. It is what we are good at. We want to be the best boys and girls in class at all costs and have to be up there with our cheerleaders, as we are proving every week. Perhaps they sense that, regardless of what they do, we will go back to pleading with them. Why would they treat us otherwise when that is what we do continuously? Going back to looking to be the best boys and girls in the class is not a mistake we ought to make again. I observe how quickly the Council can act when it comes to saving the skin of the esteemed German Chancellor. We spent the entire summit minding, charming, supporting and manicuring her and ensuring she would not be damaged in any way politically. We had to so at all costs. We should mind our own business when it comes to doing so. She is big enough to look after herself, as is her country. It confirms what the European Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs said after the Council meeting, "The facts and reality tell us we are no longer in a migration crisis. The crisis we are confronted with is purely political." If anyone took a glance, it is a political crisis which has nothing to do with migration. They do not care, as Deputies Clare Daly and Mick Wallace, among others, said, about migrants. I call on everyone not to protract this political crisis any longer and to get down to the real business and real work of finding real solutions.

The migration crisis is being made fundamentally worse because it is not being addressed at a pragmatic level; rather, it is being addressed in a piecemeal political manner that is making things much worse. Perhaps someone ought to point out to the German Chancellor the next time he or she sees her that her actions at the Council have proved that she is primarily interested in political survival, not addressing the scale of the migration crisis in the way ordinary people are demanding and deserve, especially the unfortunate migrants. We do not blame any politician for trying to mind himself or herself and hang on to power, but do we and the other countries of Europe have to use the entire summit to try to create a way out for Ms Merkel? As far as I can see, it is a case of smoke and mirrors. We should be more preoccupied with our economy and the difficulties that face us and the uncertainty no outcome to the Brexit negotiations causes for businesses in Ireland, especially those that export so much.

I keep asking the Minister of State about migrants in these debates. We have never had any real debate in the Dáil about the migrant crisis and the persecution of Christians and minority Muslims in the Middle East which we supported in allowing Shannon Airport to be used to refuel planes. The bigger state went in with our tacit support, even though we are supposed to be neutral, and wrecked the place. I salute Deputies Clare Daly and Mick Wallace for going there to see what was happening at first-hand. I went to Lebanon - I did not get to Syria - where I saw the refugee, the torturous way they were being dealt with, the never-ending poverty trap they were in and the refugee camps, about which we do not seem to care. That is what we should be raising at EU summits, given our track record as a neutral country that stood up against what was wrong and sent proud peacekeepers all over the world. We should not be out this week to primarily save Ms Merkel's skin and somebody else's next week. One can be sure it would be one of the stronger nations in Europe, one of the big boys, not the ordinary boys and girls in the class. We want to be the best in the class, look after and suck up to the biggest in the class and neglect like-minded countries and the problems they face on their borders with migration. We see the crisis unfolding on a daily basis.

I do not know how the Minister of State can go to summits and devote 90% of the time to saving Ms Merkel's skin, while ignoring the thousands of lives that have been destroyed. Havoc was caused in Aleppo and other places, as Deputy Clare Daly said, which wiped them out and there was no proper democratic solution. It is time we stood up as a nation, the proud people we are, and played our rightful part in the European Union, not just massage Ms Merkel and try to be the best boys and girls in the class.

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