IRISH President Michael D Higgins has said the United Nations and European Union have failed tens of thousands of refugees and migrants dying and risking death for a new life.
In a plea for ordinary people to offer at least shelter and security, Mr Higgins called on communities to stand up to the negativity, racism and xenophobia which has reared up in some countries over the crisis.
"There is a great failure at the level of the UN and it must be addressed by the heads of state and heads of government," President Higgins said.
"There's a great failure I think as well in relation to the EU of not having been able to agree an adequate figure (of refugees) with an implementable regime and then in the short to medium term there is the issue how you deal with people currently on the ground."
President Higgins hit out at the world's leaders for not doing enough to deal with the war in Syria, particularly through the UN Security Council.
Mr Higgins said he was shocked to learn that only one-third of a UN appeal target for aid for Syria has been reached while the World Food Programme has been forced to halve ration supplies to refugee camps.
President Higgins urged ordinary people to do the right thing.
He rejected suggestions that it was easy for him to make demands of a society which has been deeply scarred by years of austerity, unemployment and a housing crisis.
Mr Higgins said: "I think it is to the credit of these great people that even though they have taken a great hit, as a result of an imposed economic paradigm that I have often contested, that they are the people who will come forward first and say come and share with us at least shelter, some security and we will be of some assistance.
"That is the Irish way at its best."
Earlier yesterday, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said that the Republic can cope with taking in more than 1,800 refugees.
Mr Kenny said that on the basis the EU was looking at relocating more than 100,000 refugees from Greece and Italy then the figure "may be more" than the 1,800 that Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald alluded on RTÉ yesterday morning.
"Ireland can cope with more than already taken," he said.
