Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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198. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality her plans to respond to the tragic loss of life of migrants from Africa in the Mediterranean Sea (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16263/15]

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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199. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if she will request the European Union to act on the migrant deaths in the Mediterranean Sea; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16685/15]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 198 and 199 together.

The Government fully shares the horror and outrage at the tragic loss of life in the Mediterranean Sea last week. This is organised criminal activity in the smuggling of vulnerable people who are regarded by the gangs involved as utterly expendable.

My colleague, the Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan, TD, and I attended an emergency joint meeting of EU Foreign and Interior Affairs Ministers in Luxemburg on Monday, 20 April 2015 and the Taoiseach attended the Emergency European Council in Brussels on Thursday, 23 April 2015. The purpose of theses meetings was to discuss what the EU and its Member States can do together to alleviate the situation. This is an EU crisis requiring an EU solution.

At the meeting attended by Minister Flanagan and myself, we emphasised the importance of preventing these extremely perilous journeys from taking place and, in particular, the need to tackle the criminal activity that drives this trade. However, more than anything, people need to be safe in their home countries, and for this reason, political solutions to the many conflicts undermining security in the wider region are essential. We emphasised, as well, the need for increased humanitarian assistance. The immediate response to humanitarian crises of this nature have to be primarily grounded in the region where the conflict occurs, tackling the issue at its roots. If it is a question of funding we in the EU need to find a way to make that happen. Ireland has indicated already that we will be increasing the funding for our humanitarian assistance. As the Deputy will be aware, we are already a substantial donor in this regard.

We highlighted the importance of resettlement, which we will continue to do. Long term development programmes are critical, in addition to emergency humanitarian assistance. Ireland also agreed with the importance of integrating internal and external policy when it comes to addressing migration to bring a greater coherence to the EU’s response.

At the Emergency European Council EU leaders discussed the dramatic situation in the Mediterranean and agreed four priority areas for action, as follows:

- An immediate expansion of the EU Border Agency, FRONTEX, led Operation Triton in terms of resources and scale in the region.

- Stepping up of efforts to disrupt the organised criminal and smuggling groups through greater law enforcement cooperation, the capture and destruction of vessels and possible deployment of a Common Security and Defence Policy operation in the Region.

- Increased cooperation with third countries (with a focus on Turkey, Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan, Mali and Niger), renewed political cooperation in regional dialogues with Africa, greater deployment of Immigration Liaison Officers in the Region and the launch of Regional Development and Protection Programmes in North Africa and the Horn of Africa.

- Solidarity measures, such as; full implementation of the Common European Asylum System, increased emergency aid and deployment of EASO Teams to the front line Member States and setting up a voluntary pilot programme of resettlement.

At the European Council the Taoiseach indicated we would provide a vessel and crew to participate in search and rescue and that we were re-examining our resettlement commitments.