Mr. Colm O'Gorman:

The other issue, which is not within the control of the committee or the Government, is that we have concerns about some of the public reactions, in particular to the case. I acknowledge we flagged this yesterday. I have enormous sympathy with views that the family has expressed at times that if Ibrahim perhaps was ethnically Irish there might have been a different response to his case. That is true at the level of the way in which elements of Irish society have responded to his case. Some of the dismissals and comments about Ibrahim that I have seen, particularly online - we all know online is a particular kind of environment - and specifically some of the xenophobia and Islamophobia evidenced in the comments, are of grave concern. It would be welcome if those views were challenged at every opportunity members have to talk publicly about the case. This is a young Irish kid who has been in prison in Egypt for almost two years. Some of the charges laid against him on social media and in public discourse in Ireland, never mind the charges he faces in Egypt, are particularly outrageous, and we all have a responsibility to try to uphold the integrity of this young man and his family.