Averil Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response. Although he said that Ireland and the EU have been pushing for an end to the violence and a transition to representative government, there is no sign of that getting anywhere. It is not something that has been getting any international attention. As a result, there is very little faith. I have met with Syrian representatives here in Ireland and there is very little confidence within Syria among the ordinary population that any real effort is being made to find a third way out of this conflict or to support the establishment of a genuinely peaceful and representative government. I ask the Minister of State to stress to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Flanagan, the need to redouble those efforts. We need to see a serious effort. Words criticising Assad are not enough when we are also backing him because in the short term, ISIS is seen as a greater evil. It is not enough. There is a need for proper and real engagement.

The other issue was barrel bombs. The Minister of State might ask the Minister to push for a no-fly zone over those areas because Assad is cruelly attacking civilian areas. His regime has bombed markets and places like that.

I welcome the fact that Ireland and the EU are contributing to food aid but the reality is that it has not been getting through. Given our own history of famine, I ask that a greater effort be made in order that the aid gets through. People are starving and they are starving to death, not because aid is not being provided but because Assad is cynically stopping it from getting to civilians in opposition-controlled areas, ostensibly as a way of trying to put pressure on ISIS, but really just killing innocent civilians. I appreciate that efforts are being undertaken but we need to do so much more. This is the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world and there seems to be so little international attention on it.