Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of People Before Profit we send our solidarity and sympathy to the victims of the earthquake in Türkiye and Syria. The death toll has risen to 11,000 and the World Health Organization has warned that it could rise to 20,000. I want to raise the question of aid to this very desperate area in this desperate scenario. Aid has always been weaponised and there have been sanctions in place against Syria. These are sanctions by the EU and the US. I am no friend of Assad or the Syrian regime and what it has done, which has been absolutely outrageous in that country for the past 11 or 12 years, but obstacles are there to humanitarian aid and they have already prevented the importation of many medicines into the country. GoFundMe is stating it cannot allow funding support into Syria even though some people in some cases are trying to raise it through this manner. Will the Taoiseach assure us that Ireland will use its voice to insist the EU and countries globally do not allow sanctions against Syria to impact on the humanitarian effort to rescue people, save lives and re-establish some sense of order in the region?

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