Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

That was when people were stretched beyond belief. Our legislation could not be retrospective then but it can be in this case, without any problem whatsoever. This is the same Europe and these are the same rules but we can now go back.

I am seriously concerned about what we are doing here. I am concerned about the narrative and the continuation of a war without Ireland using its neutral voice. We should use it in a most positive way to say, “Please do not continue this war in our name”. At the same time, we are completely ignoring the approximately 108 million displaced people throughout the world.

In the past decade and prior to the war in Ukraine, the global refugee crisis doubled in scope. As I said, 76% of the refugees came from six countries, which are listed. I will zone in on these countries. Sudan, one of the poorest countries in the world, is taking in an extraordinary number of refugees. The same applies to South Sudan. Then there is Afghanistan, the country, let us remember, that we just deserted. We did not bring in any donor funds. We did not get the three institutions to talk about setting up donor or trust funds to deal with Afghanistan. Let us remember that country and what has happened to women there. They have no schooling or anything else. The ongoing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan consistently makes it one of the top countries of origin for refugees. Roughly one in ten refugees, 2.8 million people, are Afghan by birth. Most of them are hosted in neighbouring Pakistan and Iran, two countries we like to condemn. Syria, similarly, has millions of displaced people.

What point am I making with this? I have no difficulty with helping the people in Ukraine who are suffering from an illegal invasion. That is humanitarian assistance. Warning signs go off in my head, however, when I see something like this where the narrative and context are given without providing the bigger context of what is happening in the world. Where is our voice as a neutral country? I would like to hear that.

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