I remind members and those here with us today to ensure mobile phones and BlackBerries are switched off completely for the duration of the meeting because they cause interference, even if in silent mode, with the recording equipment in committee rooms.
The minutes of the meeting of 22 April have been circulated. Are there any matters arising?
Yes. It need not delay us for very long, but it is a matter of urgency. The minutes refer to correspondence, namely, a letter the committee sent on 25 March 2009 to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Micheál Martin, outlining our concern at events taking place in Sri Lanka. Unfortunately, in the past two or three weeks, more than 1,000 people have been killed in Sri Lanka, including 106 children. The Minister, Deputy Martin, expressed the concern of the Government at events in Sri Lanka shortly after receiving our letter, but it is a matter of some urgency that he repeat his concerns now.
One of the disturbing aspects of the situation is the language used, which is of the same type used in the recent Pakistan initiative. It speaks about the elimination of the threat of terror, which is not just using a military solution as an alternative to a political one, but uses terms such as "elimination" in the case of the Tamil community, which is protesting outside the Dáil today and asked me to convey a message. I collected three copies of their letter to me which they addressed to the committee. In addition, also present were Tamils living in Ireland. I am simply stating that the Minister's previous statement was helpful, but it would be even more helpful if it was repeated.
There have been approximately 1,006 deaths in the past ten days. Of these, the number of children is approximately 105. The people who have been relocated from the province of Vanni are having to go to approved residences and one must register if one is a Tamil.
In addition, Médecins sans Frontières yesterday expressed its concern at its ability to access those who needed services which are ready and asked for the committee's support for its emergency funding from Irish Aid to deal with the disaster affecting families of Tamils who have been relocated. I would suggest that we ask the Minister to issue an appropriate statement and also ask Irish Aid to respond positively to Médecins sans Frontières.
We will do that right away. As Deputy Higgins will be aware, the Minister raised it with the UN during the past week but we will write to him again. I thank Deputy Higgins for raising the matter at this stage.
There are two items of EU scrutiny concerning decisions taken by the Joint Committee on European Scrutiny on 28 April and 6 May 2009. It is proposed that these be noted. Is that agreed? Agreed.
