Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Tánaiste. He is welcome, as are the members of his team. I have raised most of my questions with the Tánaiste previously. Can he provide an update on the Middle East peace process? He mentioned previously that he was anxious to convene a summit or meeting in Dublin in the new year. Can he provide his view on two areas, one of which Deputy Maureen O’Sullivan touched on? The first is Iran and the climate of human rights there. It was news to us yesterday that the death penalty has been legislated out of practice there. That includes the stoning of people to death. As late as this morning, we met a group involved in the advocacy of human rights and democracy in Bahrain. They painted a pretty grim picture for us about political prisoners. There appears to be a complete lack of open, transparent democracy and freedom of speech. People are tried, locked up and sentenced to death for speaking out even on Twitter. We were told that there are approximately 40 people under sentence of death.

Can the Tánaiste provide an update on the chilling effect of the situation in Hungary and the rise of Viktor Orbán? I have raised this matter with him before. What is the impact of that on open democracy, the media and the judiciary there? Some of us had the benefit of a briefing last week from our ambassador to the UN, H.E. Geraldine Byrne Nason, on the campaign for a Security Council seat at the United Nations. Can the Tánaiste comment? I ask for a comment on the undocumented Irish in the USA. We are up to speed on the campaign on the E3 visas, but there is a lingering concern about how, ultimately, we can address the cohort of Irish who are undocumented within the United States of America.

We are eating, sleeping and drinking Brexit every day of the week. Can the Tánaiste provide a little more detail on the work under way on preparedness and the recruitment campaign Revenue is conducting for customs staff in particular? Different numbers are being quoted on how many people are actually being sought through the current recruitment campaign.

Will the Minister give us some indication as to where the critical mass of these people will be? Will they be dotted along the Border, will they be in our ports or will they be everywhere? We have not been saying a whole lot publicly about the detail of the contingency planning, but will the Minister give us any insight into it?