Averil Power (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Last February, I raised the issue of the Syrian crisis in this House in a Commencement debate at the request of the Ireland Syrian Solidarity Campaign. At the time I pointed out that thousands of people risked their lives on overcrowded boats sailing to Europe. I also urged the Irish and European authorities to do more to help the refugees and address the root causes of the crisis.

As other Members have said, the crisis has been unravelling in front of our eyes for years. It is too all of our great shame, as Europeans and that of the international community as a whole, that the issue did not become a political priority until photographs of poor Aylan Kurdi emerged in the international media. We could not ignore the image of a small child lying dead on a beach. His image resonated with parents all over the world. People thought that could have been their child, that his family was just like their families and that they were unfortunate to have been born in Syria. It was as a result of a huge public outpouring of anger and upset after those images emerged that we finally started to see some political leadership devoted to the issue. Even then, the response was slow and totally inadequate. In a European Union that is supposed to have been built on the principle of solidarity, the countries at the front-line were left on their own. Senator Norris has mentioned the case of Greece and Italy but other countries were left for a long time to cope with the crisis on their own. Other European countries turned their backs and pretended not to see while saying, "They are not on our borders so why should we have to do anything about it."

I, too, am very proud of the incredible work that has been done by the Irish Naval Service. I have no doubt that it has been emotionally difficult for the personnel involved to respond in that environment. The naval personnel have all done us proud by their efforts to rescue families in the Mediterranean. I am concerned about the slow response by the Irish Government to the crisis. We were not one of the first European countries to respond. Our European colleagues, like Angela Merkel and others, criticised countries like Ireland for not stepping up and agreeing to take more refugees at the start. Yes we sent the Irish Naval Service to rescue people but we then deposited them in other countries.