Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for outlining the issues regarding the undocumented and on visas. There is growing frustration among businesspeople going out on the ESTA system but who are being stopped and turned back. As such, further engagement on that would be helpful.

Deputy Crowe referred to the hooded men. There is a real obligation on us in that regard. I understand that it is not an appeal and that no case has progressed further than ours successfully. However, this is not just about the hooded men. This is also about the way in which the ruling has been used by democracies to justify enhanced interrogation techniques which everyone considers to be torture. As such, we need that ruling to be overturned, not just for those 14 men but for people who are in prison at the moment and could be subjected to the same methods legitimately on foot of that ruling.

The Minister dealt with the Middle East peace process. It is cause for despair in many ways. A lot of the problem is that the necessary ingredients are not there. Olson said that to negotiate peace one needs four key elements, one of which is a hurting stalemate in which both sides are inflicting maximum amounts of pain on each other. That is obviously not the case here. Although the Palestinians are being subjected to what is in many ways dehumanising treatment, the Israelis do not seem to wish to facilitate any further negotiations in the peace process. The other three elements are a credible facilitator, which is not there at the moment, the absence of a belligerent third party present, and leadership. All four elements are required for a successful peace process such as we had in Northern Ireland. Unfortunately, they are not in place in the Middle East. It is also the case that there are many other competing situations which need to be dealt with, meaning it can attract only a limited amount of actual engagement.

The Minister mentioned at lunchtime today in a speech on Brexit the unhelpfulness of discussion of a Border poll. I agree with him 100% on that. Discussion of a Border poll is very unhelpful in the context of Brexit, the lesson of which is that one does not have a referendum and only then tell everyone what the future looks like. That has been the mistake in Westminster where, in fact, they still do not know what the future looks like in terms of what they want Brexit to be. On 15 May last, Prime Minister Theresa May said she did not believe unionists would win a Border poll and Lady Sylvia Hermon has said she believed there would be a Border poll in her lifetime. In fact, a unionist is taking the Minister's Department to court on 13 July on foot of the Government’s policy on achieving Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution.