European Affairs Minister visibly upset in Dáil while responding to Essex truck discovery tragedy
Helen McEntee, the European Affairs Minister, got visbily upset in the Dáil today when she was responding to questions about the Essex tragedy in which 39 bodies were discovered in a lorry trailer.
Ms McEntee, speaking during a debate, struggled to contain her emotions when she addressed the migrant issue and spoke of her frustration as to the lack of progress at EU level in dealing with it.
“On the migrants issue, I find this quite upsetting. Where anybody dies in such a manner it is a failure of all of us,” she said with her voice cracking.
“It is an extremely frustrating conversation that I have been having with my colleagues over the past two years when it arises at the General Affairs Council.
We do, and want to, support any mechanisms that are put in place. As a country, we are not to the forefront like Greece, Spain and Italy but we do have a role to play.
She said we all have a duty to ensure that our voices are heard such that where there are unfair practices, such that people are dying in this manner, we speak up and condemn it as a failure on all of our parts.
"It is important that as a European Union we work together to ensure that those who are geographically at the forefront of this are supported.
"As a country, we have tried to do this through Operation Sophia and by opting-in to taking 4,000 migrants although we are not at that number yet. We will continue, where we can, to take in as many as we can,” she said.
On the particular issue, she said her understanding is that the Minister for Justice and Equality, Charles Flanagan, and his officials are engaging with officials in the UK to determine what happened.
“My understanding is that the migrants travelled through Ireland, that has not been confirmed.
"We need to understand how this happened, how it was allowed to happen and how we can ensure it does not happen again. As I said, for anybody to die in that way is unacceptable,” she told the Dáil.
