Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this issue for the third time in the House. While all our energy goes to dealing with the economic situation here and across Europe, we must maintain the view that we are all human beings and we must do something about the humanitarian issue in Syria. Thousands have died in brutal attacks and many more have been severely injured or forced to flee their homes. Schools and health centres have closed down or have become too dangerous for families to contact. Many have been traumatised by the torture and upheaval inflicted upon them, in particular having to leave their family home to seek refuge in neighbouring countries of Jordan, Iraq, and Turkey. According to the Jordanian Government, more than 200,000 Syrian refugees have entered the country and are living in appalling conditions. We are all acutely aware of the humanitarian aspect to the Syrian conflict. It is our duty to support the countries now receiving a large influx of refugees, such as Turkey and Jordan.

As a Government, we must call for an immediate end to the violence, stress the responsibility of Syria to protect its population and continue to monitor the situation closely.

The United Nations needs to ensure that all measures possible are adopted to stop human rights violations and establish a commission to investigate these violations. Humanitarian corridors needed to be focused on. We, as a nation, must highlight that we are united with our European counterparts in aiding the protection of the people of Syria.

Systematic and gross violations of human rights continue to be committed under the Assad regime on its own people in Syria on a daily basis. When children are being used as pawns and sought out as targets in warfare it is incumbent upon us, as a member state of the United Nations, to try to protect their interests and maintain their safety.

In the devastating massacre in Houla in May, more than 100 people lost their lives, including 49 children. On Monday, yet again we saw this civil war claim the lives of further innocent children. Syrian rights activists claimed Syrian Government warplanes bombed the northern town near the Turkish border, killing 21 people, as heavy fighting spread within the old city of Aleppo. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the death toll from Monday's air strike in Salqin included eight children. The observatory said nationwide fighting between Government and rebel forces on Monday killed at least 100 people.

The harsh reality is that the Syrian crisis has reached genocidal proportions and is one of the greatest challenges faced by the United Nations Security Council. However, while I acknowledge that we are limited in our capacity as a member state of the UN, we are not doing enough to abate this disaster which has reached a monumental scale. While we and our EU counterparts have been afforded the opportunity to raise this issue in our national parliaments, and this is the third occasion I have raised this issue, we are still merely talking about it and very little action has been instigated. While we continue to discuss Syria, children are been callously slaughtered. Procrastination is opportunity's natural assassin

We need look at the statistics to get an understanding of the extent of inactivity that prevails. Up until July 2012, over 1,300 children had been killed, 49 children were massacred in one incident alone, 635 children were put into detention centres where torture has been repeatedly testified and girls and boys as young as eight have been forcibly involved in hostilities. An estimated 470,000 children and young people have been affected by the crisis. It is estimated that around 50% of all displaced Syrians are children and young people, and girls and boys as young as 12 had been sexually abused

Amnesty International visited 26 towns and villages between 31 August and 11 September and carried out on-the-ground field investigations into indiscriminate attacks which killed 166 civilians, including 48 children and 20 women, and injured hundreds of others. In recent days Amnesty International has continued to receive information from residents of several villages about ongoing air and artillery attacks, some of which have resulted in yet more civilian casualties.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I am taking this matter on behalf of the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade.

I know Deputy Phelan and others in the House will join me in emphasising our sense of horror and dismay at the relentless onslaught upon the Syrian civilian population. The brutally repressive actions of the Assad regime and the armed resistance from elements of the opposition have resulted in extraordinary levels of human suffering, which has been outlined by Deputy Phelan. Speaking at the UN General Assembly last Friday the Tánaiste described the situation in Syria today as an affront to humanity.

I welcome the opportunity to outline how Ireland has responded. The Minister of State with responsibility for trade and development, Deputy Joe Costello, visited Jordan in August to assess the situation on the ground.

Statistics cannot adequately convey the extent of the humanitarian crisis but they are shocking. Over 20,000 people have been killed in the violence, 2.5 million people in Syria are in desperate need of assistance and over 1.2 million Syrians are displaced within their own country. There has been indiscriminate shelling of densely populated areas, excessive use of force and random targeting of innocent civilians. As the humanitarian situation deteriorates and winter approaches, there is urgent need for additional food, medical care and shelter. There is growing concern for the 500,000 Palestinian refugees in Syria who have been living for generations in camps which are now being affected by the violence.

The number of refugees in neighbouring countries has reached over 300,000, about 75% of them women and children. While visiting the Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan, the Minister of State, Deputy Costello witnessed at first hand how the staff of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, are struggling with limited resources to provide even the most basic services for a rapidly increasing refugee community. While the UN and agencies have recently been able to scale up the delivery of humanitarian assistance, the operation continues to be hampered by the Syrian regime and by violence on the part of Syrian Government forces and the armed opposition.

As early as March this year, Ireland provided €500,000 in emergency funding for the International Committee of the Red Cross, the UNHCR and the World Food Programme. At the time of the Minister of State's visit to Jordan, Ireland mobilised an additional €1.6 million of humanitarian assistance to the International Committee of the Red Cross, UNHCR, the World Health Organisation and the International Rescue Committee. This included non-food items such as tents, mattresses, kitchen sets, water tanks and jerry cans from our rapid response stocks in Dubai for Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan. Only last week, Ireland provided funding to the United Nations Relief Works Agency to help Palestinian refugees in Syria. This brings Ireland's support since March to €2.45 million.

Ireland is also working with the international community to end the suffering of the Syrian people and bring about an early political transition. What is needed above all is a strong resolution from the Security Council that will authorise targeted sanctions, including a comprehensive arms embargo, against all who are violating the basic rights of the Syrian people. There also needs to be accountability for what has happened in Syria, and Ireland fully supports referral of the situation to the International Criminal Court.

With no early political solution in sight, the prospect is all too real of continued displacement and humanitarian suffering within Syria and an escalating refugee crisis. The latest predictions are that the number of Syrian refugees could reach 710,000 by the end of the year, some 250,000 in Jordan alone.

The immediate imperative is to respond to the humanitarian needs on the ground while maintaining international efforts to find a sustainable political solution. Ireland and our EU partners are firmly committed on both fronts. Collectively, we have already provided well over €200 million in humanitarian assistance and we will remain fully engaged in solidarity with the people of Syria.

I commend Deputy Phelan for raising this issue. It is important that it be raised in parliaments throughout the world, to ensure that the international response is as strong as can possibly be mobilised.

Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour)
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I thank the Minister of State for her response. We must continue to raise this matter in our parliaments and we must keep it on all our agendas. I am calling for the reinstatement of UN monitors. Observatory missions, such as that based in London, are limited in scope and capacity to act.

Governments will be meeting between 17 and 19 October at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, to discuss children rights. The issue of children in the war in Syria should be raised at that assembly. The Save the Children campaign is calling for strident monitoring and recording of every crime against the children of Syria and that their perpetrators be held to account.

We can only keep trying. The Minister of State said a political solution is not in sight. In the absence of that, we must keep pushing humanitarian issues and try to alleviate the suffering of the most vulnerable in society, namely children.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Ireland will continue to contribute strongly to the humanitarian needs of Syria.

Deputy Phelan might have heard about the Tánaiste's strong remarks at the United Nations General Assembly last week. Ireland is certainly making its voice heard in this regard. I will convey to the Tánaiste the Deputy's concern that the UN monitors be reinstated, as he is back in the country now, and I am sure the Deputy will do so as well.