Jim D'Arcy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the representatives of the various bodies for meeting us. This is an important discussion. It is welcome that the RCSI has established a university structure in Bahrain. Mr. Tom Collins and I are friends.

As Professor Kelly might know, he served as a very good president of Dundalk Institute of Technology, DKIT, of which I was a board member. Then he went to NUI Maynooth and he has a great reputation. I was very sad when I met Professor Collins and he was very distressed about what had happened. He felt diminished by what had happened in Bahrain. Not the RCSI, the Department of Education and Skills, NUI or anybody else can solve the political problems in Bahrain or the Middle East, no more than they can solve the problems here. That is not their function. The RCSI would not cover up or underplay the significance of anything that might be happening and which would be connected with the university. I would like to comment on that. Last week I met members of the Shura Council at the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Geneva. I met Dr. Jamal Fakhro, who was closely involved in establishing the structure in Bahrain. As was said here today, he said there were no problems, that there was free medical care and education, nearly everybody drove a Mercedes and everything was fine. "What more do they want?" he said.