Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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The Minister of State and I will both agree that Syria is in a terrible situation with 3.3 million refugees, 5.5 million displaced within the country and another 3 million who have left the country to look for work. This amounts to approximately 12 million people in total. The people are starving with four out of five people said to be living in dire poverty and suffering hunger.

It is very difficult to know what Ireland can do but one thing we should encourage is the realisation that there will not be a military solution to the crisis. All the turmoil started out of the bombing of Iraq beginning in 2003 which in turn led to civil war in Iraq between Sunni and Shia and the creation of ISIS. The recent bombing campaign by the US in Iraq and Syria is unlikely to help the situation. The flow of arms from western allies and from the Saudis through Turkey into Syria will not help things. There will not be a military solution. We must encourage the US to sit down with the Russians and the Iranians to stop the massacre and the violence because it is too horrific for words. Those parties are the most powerful and they can make a difference. The work must be towards securing a truce.

While work towards achieving a truce in Syria is worthwhile, the flow of arms to Israel must stop and Palestine must be recognised as a state in its own right. Much of the trouble in the Middle East emanates from the problems in Palestine and these problems will continue until justice is achieved for the Palestinians.

Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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It is difficult to speak in two minutes about the unending horror being faced by people in Syria. We tabled this topical issue on the fourth anniversary of the start of the conflict because after four years of unrelenting struggle, desolation reigns and there is no end in sight for the country's citizens. It is not that Syrian people support one political faction or another but that they are simply exhausted and war-weary. Millions are living in refugee camps where their basic needs are not met, while others starve. More than 200,000 people have been killed, yet nobody remembers the dead because there are no morgues and no functioning state to register their deaths. The economy has shrunk, poverty is everywhere and ISIS holds sway in large parts of the north and east of the country. Syria is in an unmitigated humanitarian disaster.

While it is necessary to look forward, we must also look back. When President Obama decided to arm the Syrian opposition Deputy Wallace and I argued in this Chamber that his decision would make matters worse rather than better. I do not feel good making that statement but it is true. Two years ago, Oxfam issued a statement in which it pointed out that sending arms to the Syrian opposition would not "create a level playing field." It continued:

Instead, it risks further fuelling an arms free-for-all where the victims are the civilians of Syria. Our experience from other conflict zones tells us that this crisis will only drag on for far longer if more and more arms are poured into the country.

Dara Murphy (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the opportunity to reflect on the appalling tragedy which unfolds daily in Syria. I fully concur with the Deputies' analysis of the extent of the tragedy in Syria and the terrible loss of life that has occurred. This issue has been raised to coincide with the fourth anniversary of the start of the conflict. On 15 March 2011, brave young Syrians began to protest against the corruption of the Assad regime, calling for reform and better government. The leadership of the Syrian regime chose to refuse these demands and acted to suppress the popular protests by murdering and torturing civilians, thereby initiating a fight against its own people.

The horrific conflict that ensued has led to the deaths of more than 200,000 Syrians and almost 4 million refugees have fled to neighbouring countries. Of the 7.5 million people displaced inside Syria, more than half are children who have been traumatised by the violence they have witnessed. Life expectancy in Syria has fallen by a scarcely believable 24 years since the beginning of the conflict, proof, if it were needed, of the horrific hardship and suffering borne by the Syrian population.

Ireland stands with its international partners in supporting a political solution which draws on the principles set out in the 2012 Geneva communiqué, namely, an end to violence, the formation of an inclusive transitional governing body with executive powers and the initiation of a constitutional process for a democratic Syria which preserves Syria's multiethnic and multi-religious character.

Ireland's humanitarian assistance for the people of Syria since 2011 has already reached €31 million. Working with trusted non-governmental organisation partners, United Nations agencies and the Red Cross, our support has met a range of emergency needs, including food, water and sanitation, shelter and other forms of protection. Humanitarian access within Syria remains hampered by regime restrictions on aid agencies, the disunity of the armed opposition and the intensity of the conflict. I repeat the Government's call for safe and unhindered humanitarian access.

Ireland will continue to provide humanitarian assistance in response to ongoing needs in Syria and neighbouring countries hosting Syrian refugees. We have already provided €1.8 million to support the work of UN agencies in 2015, most of which targets the needs of children. My colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Sean Sherlock, will attend a pledging conference for Syria in Kuwait next week, at which he will set out how Ireland intends to support the Syrian people in 2015 and will pledge further funding.

I repeat Ireland's condemnation of the multiple war crimes suffered by the Syrian people at the hands of all parties to the conflict. I also reiterate our call on the Security Council to refer the position in Syria to the International Criminal Court.

Ireland is also working on the implementation of measures to address terrorism and violent extremism, which are a threat to the peoples and countries of the Middle East and Europe. We are committed to protecting all victims of violent and extremist ideology and determined to respond to these threats, while strengthening the promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms. With our international partners, Ireland remains fully committed to doing everything in its power to end the terrible suffering of the Syrian people.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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The Minister and I agree that both sides in the Syrian conflict have been guilty of horrific crimes. The use of arms and bombing by both sides is not helping matters. When Pol Pot started his campaign he had an army of 5,000 men, yet within four years the actions of President Nixon and his Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, through the use of B52 bombers, had increased this figure to 200,000. ISIS is similar to Pol Pot's crowd in that its members are also a bad shower that has grown out of the violence in the region. We need to stop this violence and advocate for the bombing campaign in Syria and Iraq to stop. ISIS will not be beaten by bombing them from 30,000 ft. The bombing campaign does not solve the problem as it causes even greater misery for the citizens who must live under it. We must call on everyone to stop supplying arms and munitions to Syria.

The Minister of State is dead right; Assad is an animal. However, when people took to the streets in Bahrain the Saudis, using US munitions and arms, stopped the protests because the Bahraini Government could not handle them.

Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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While we could all sign up to the aspirations set out in the Geneva communiqué of 2012, they are a million miles away from the reality on the ground in Syria. The communiqué refers to a constitutional process and calls for a democratic Syria, yet it is no longer certain that Syria exists as a country. It is certainly not multiethnic or multi-religious in character and is falling apart in the most traumatic way. One year after the communiqué was issued, the United States and other countries decided to arm the Syrian opposition, including jihadists. This decision contributed to the problems being experienced by the country and I expect that, in retrospect, the countries in question regret their decision given the crisis it helped to spawn. This vindicates our point that one cannot hope for good to come from external military intervention in such conflicts. Only bad things come from such an approach, of which the mushrooming of ISIS has been a by-product. Therefore, I strongly support the call that Ireland, as a supposedly neutral country, should be arguing for an end to both the arms that are going in from external sources and the bombs that are being dropped, as well as a facilitation of peace on the ground.

Dara Murphy (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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There is broad agreement that the only possible future to what is the most dangerous and destabilising crisis in the Middle East, given the number of people who have been displaced or killed, is work that will deliver de-escalation. To that end, the United Nations special envoy, Staffan de Mistura, is working to attempt the extremely difficult task of promoting a graduated de-escalation proposal based on local conflict freezes, almost to break off pieces of the conflict to ascertain whether they can be addressed. It is hoped this will create conditions for political negotiations that may lead to ending the conflict. However, the Deputy is correct. This initiative is proving extremely difficult to implement on the ground in the face of military actions by all parties now concerned. The aspirations of the communiqué are a million miles away from what is happening on the ground and the collapse of the legitimacy and authority of state institutions across much of Syria, just as happened previously in Iraq, has created conditions that have allowed for the emergence of radical non-state groups and in particular the violent extremist Sunni groups known as ISIS or ISIL. One must hope that Staffan de Mistura can achieve his ambition. There was significant discussion on the matter recently at the Foreign Affairs Council, as well as support for his ambition to try to create these conflict-free zones to allow some attempt at conflict negotiation.