Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

His 20th birthday is on 13 December and his trial is on 15 December. My concern remains that we have been told different things at different times by our Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in relation to what can and cannot be done for Ibrahim Halawa on law No. 140 and the presidential decree. Other countries have succeeded but we have failed to do for our citizen what the Australians did for Peter Greste. The reason I want to see the legal team here has nothing to do with the Egyptian legal system or the trial there. It is about what our Government should be doing in the same way as the Australians. If one reviews the correspondence we have received from our Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, there are consistent discrepancies on law No. 140 and what can and cannot be done. I am disappointed that we did not want to meet in public session because if there is criticism, let it be heard in public. My concern is that the Government members do not want to hear the criticism of our Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in relation to what it should and should not be doing on this case.