Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have circulated a copy of the legal opinion, but I know members may not have had the opportunity to read it. There are a number of discrepancies in regard to what we have been told at this committee in this regard. This has nothing to do with the court case in Egypt and we are not asking the Government to do anything in this regard. We are asking for information on what happened in regard to law No. 140. The document I circulated lists six key points written by the legal team. It states that, to date, the Irish Government has maintained law No. 140 cannot be applied to Mr. Halawa until Egypt's criminal proceedings against him have concluded. This has been said repeatedly here in this committee and the same message has been e-mailed to us time and again. However, it is clearly not the case. The legal opinion indicates that the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Flanagan, has incorrectly said that Peter Greste was not, strictly speaking, in the course of trial proceedings when he was returned to Australia and that law No. 140 clearly allows for the transfer to Ireland of Mr. Halawa prior to the final judgment being given in his case. The Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ms Julie Bishop, noted on Mr. Greste's retrial that he is now back in the position of an acute person awaiting trial. Again, we were told that Ibrahim Halawa could not be dealt with until after a trial, but that was not the case for Peter Greste. We were given different information in this committee by our Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. We were told we had to wait until after the trial.

The opinion of Ibrahim's legal team is that it is clear the Irish Government could still do more to secure Mr. Halawa's release. It would be great if we could hear in public session what more we could do. We urge the Government, under Taoiseach Enda Kenny, to take the same approach as Australia in seeking the release and return of Mr. Halawa. To save everybody the bother of having to read the entire document, I will explain our request. While we note the Irish Government's discussions with the foreign prosecutor for Egypt, it is clear the Government can still do more in regard to securing Mr. Halawa's release. We note that Peter Greste was released only after repeated public requests made by the Australian Prime Minister to President el-Sisi, the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs to her counterpart in Cairo and sustained efforts by the Australian ambassador. We urge the Government to do this. The Australian process related to law No. 140, which relates to a presidential decree and has nothing to do with a court case. It secured the release of Peter Greste prior to a trial.