Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

-----when we previously used to rescue 8,000 people a year? Do we mean hard borders, something we do not want on our island but which the EU is funding right across Africa? It is pouring money into the wall between Syria and Türkiye rather than pouring money in, as it should, in order to cover the humanitarian needs of the 6.7 million people in Syria who have been displaced, including refugees from all around the world.

The Taoiseach also used the word "fair". How is it fair that EU countries that have a long history of ransacking African countries for their wealth and resources, which has contributed to the climate change that makes parts of the world uninhabitable, continue to focus their efforts on identifying how they can be more unwelcoming rather than on how they can ensure that the world is a habitable place? We can do better and we can have genuinely fair policies that are decent and deliver decent services to all who live in this country and to everyone across the globe.