Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have been in contact with the Secretary of State about this case. My Department has also been in contact with officials on the British side about it. There are two principal issues here, first, the conditions under which he is being held and the category A status that has been assigned to him. We have discussed these issues with the British authorities. The second, wider, issue is the letters this man and others have received from which they concluded that they were not being sought by the police service or the legal system. The Deputy referred to these letters. This man had travelled in and out of Britain on several occasions and had not expected that anything of this kind would happen. There is a concern, which I understand, for people who have received those assurances and are now looking at this case and wondering about their own situation. We must get clarity and assurance on that. I am very conscious of that and of the impact this and the other arrests to which the Deputy referred are having on a wider circle of people. I am discussing this with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

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