Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

While I understand that four Departments are involved, the Minister of State's Department is one of them. Bad things are happening in Shannon, and the Minister of State is overseeing it. Not only are the media not telling the truth about what is going on in Shannon, but the UN itself is complicit. Two years ago, the UN told us that almost 10,000 people had been killed in Yemen. The most recent figure provided on those killed in the conflict was also around 10,000. One would swear that nobody has died there in the last two years. Millions will die of hunger there. Saudi Arabia has not been able to defeat Yemen militarily, so it has reverted to starving the people of Yemen into submission. The results of this policy will be unbelievable. I cannot believe the EU is prepared to turn a blind eye to this. A report was compiled by the UN which condemned the use of illegal cluster bombs and white phosphorous on civilians and fingered the Saudis for using such weapons. Mr. Ban Ki-Moon personally had the report rewritten to remove any reference to blaming Saudi Arabia. What is going on is unbelievable. We cannot even trust the UN to have an honest approach to this issue.

I do not know what role the Minister of State can play, but I plead with the Government to act on this at European level. Europeans cannot continue to ignore what is happening in Yemen. Millions will die if we do not do something about it.

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