Averil Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am not sure. I would like more detail. Professor Kelly referred to making sure he had a good sample of students. I would like to see that it is not just the college which is involved in offering him enough students. I have no problem with the fact that he is being given enough but it is important that he would speak to former students, visit and talk to Ali al-Ekri, whose background is with the college and who is still in prison, and talk to former students and staff who will say the reason they have been denied jobs is purely on the basis of their ethnicity and religion and not their qualifications. I would need more reassurance regarding the process involved and how it would apply here. I would like Médecins Sans Frontières and other internationally recognised organisations to be part of the visit. I do not want to say "No" but I would like to see proper independence. I have a concern. I visited Bahrain and I met Ministers. I visited China years ago and people gave me what they wanted to give me. The government rolled out a professor of human rights to tell us everything was great.

If he was going to tell us everything was not great in China, he would not have been allowed into the meeting. I would have concern that the witnesses would be given a balanced point of view of the real situation on the ground and not just a nuanced or glossed one. I would like to take that up further with the witnesses. I ask that they would talk to other people who have concerns to bring that process forward.

I am genuinely sorry that I need to leave. I am my party's spokesperson on education and the Minister of State will be in the Seanad at 3 o'clock and I am supposed to be in there responding to him. However, I will get the transcript of all the comments made here after I leave. I thank the witnesses for their time, because we have been here for two hours.