Averil Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is a very serious issue and the committee should be concerned about it. It not only affects the reputation of the RCSI in Bahrain and here, but also the reputation of Irish education. Education is something we are trying to market to other countries and its reputation should not be in doubt. The witness has made the main points. I was in Bahrain with an Irish delegation of doctors, human rights activists and others two years ago and heard the testimonies the witness mentioned. Students told us that in previous years all members of the graduating class would automatically get a placement in a state hospital so they could complete their professional training. However, after the protests that took place during the Arab spring in Bahrain, a distinction is now being made on sectarian grounds between the students. It should be a matter of extreme concern to us that an Irish institution would be involved in that type of practice.

There is also the resignation of Professor Tom Collins. He is an incredibly well respected academic in Ireland as a result of his work on the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA, the Curriculum Advisory Council and other bodies. Having visited Bahrain, he resigned from that position and said he was not satisfied to continue in it given the human rights context. We should take that very seriously. It is appropriate for the committee to express its concerns on this issue and ask that they be examined. It is alarming that matters are just getting worse daily in Bahrain. There are also wider issues surrounding medical neutrality and so forth. Amnesty International, the European commissioner for human rights and various groups have expressed concerns that Irish trained medical personnel such as Dr. Ali Al-Ekri and others who trained in Dublin as part of the RCSI training were arrested in Bahrain simply for treating injured protestors and for expressing concern and anger on television at the fact that people had been shot in the back of the head and so forth. They were rounded up and arrested for that reason and they are still in prison.

I thank Dr. Gearóid Ó Cuinn for making this presentation. It is appropriate for this committee to express concern about an Irish institution being under such a dark cloud with regard to the human rights and particularly the safety of its students. Every institution has a responsibility to protect the safety of all its students, regardless of their ethnicity, religion or anything else.