Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I commend this Private Member's motion from our colleagues in the Civil Engagement Group. We should all be greatly exercised by this. We all remember the name of Alan Kurdi, the little boy whose body was washed up on the beach in 2019. That image is iconic. It was supposed to be emblematic or symbolic of the end of something. We were supposed to be united in our resolve to end the phenomenon of people drowning in the Mediterranean in large numbers.However, the numbers drowning in the Mediterranean have, in fact, accelerated since then. I am very conscious of the language we use around this. Shamefully, many Irish media outlets refer to these people as migrants. They are not migrants; they are people fleeing for their lives from the effects of climate change and conflict. We have to try to identify with these people.

We have heard some figures, including the figure of 50,000 since 1993. While I believe that is only a fraction of the numbers who have drowned, 50,000 is an entire leaving certificate cohort. Can you imagine every single one of the teenagers and young adults in Ireland, our sons and daughters, including my own, who finished the leaving certificate exams this week, a whole demographic cohort, drowned in the Mediterranean? Drowning in saltwater is different from drowning in fresh water. The effect of saltwater entering the lungs causes the blood and other products in the lungs to cross the alveolar membrane and creates a really viscous liquid in the lungs. People basically drown in their own fluids. The salt in the trachea and other parts of the larynx cause spasms. It is an extremely painful way to die. People in that situation struggle and thrash about. Can you image the situation of the 200 people who were recently locked in the hold of an unsuitable vessel? Can you imagine 200 to 300 people in that space, including elderly people, infants, children and adolescents with their whole lives in front of them, struggling and dying in that way? We were quite rightly appalled and moved by the tragic death of the five people who went down on a submersible to view the wreck of the Titanic. Particularly poignant was the case of the father and son. It was tragic and unthinkable but that can be multiplied a hundredfold or a thousandfold in the Mediterranean.

I have a lot of contacts in that community and they tell me that, in much the same way as there was a selection in previous times, people traffickers and people smugglers consider different types of human beings to be of greater or lesser value. Hundreds of children have been placed on vessels that these people know are going to sink because they are considered disposable and the easiest way to get rid of them is at sea. Think about that. That is what is happening on our watch. Nobody puts a child or a loved one into a rubber dinghy and puts them into the Mediterranean or, for that matter, the channel between Calais and Dover because they want to get a job at Starbucks in Hamburg or to avail of our social welfare systems. That is not the case. These are people who are absolutely in extremis. As Senator Joe O'Reilly said, our own ancestors had to flee this country in coffin ships.

I believe we have a unique voice. This week, I attended the consultative forum on defence and security in Dublin Castle. There was a great discussion on how we should use our national means. There were panels from all over Europe made up of security institutes and academics. They talked about the ways in which we can maximise the efficacy of our national assets like our vessels, our air crew and our naval personnel but Ireland should really be in the business of reconciliation, peace and saving lives. In the spirit of this proposal, I ask the Government to talk to our colleagues in Brussels and Strasbourg and to get them to reverse the decision to move to security operations in the Mediterranean, such as Operation Irini and Operation Sofia, which went before it, and to return to search and rescue operations. A classmate of mine who was in the Naval Service, pointed out the LÉ Samuel Beckett in Dún Laoghaire Harbour and told me that, when he was commander of that ship, the crew had saved 2,000 men, women and children and brought them to safety. Those people are now making a great contribution in Europe.

I commend this Bill but I ask everybody to remember who we are talking about. We are talking about our fellow human beings, our brothers and sisters, drowning in this awful way. I ask the Minister of State to talk to his colleagues in Europe, members of European parliamentary groups, and to ask them to reverse that decision and to return to search and rescue.