Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Last week 16 individuals, including 12 lawyers representing Basque political prisoners, were arrested. The arrests came just days after a huge demonstration in Bilbao when more than 80,000 people marched in support of the fledgling peace process and also Basque prisoners. There is huge support across the political spectrum for the peace process in the Basque country. Does the Minister of State believe the arrests are damaging to the fledgling peace process? Given our history, will he use his positive influence to consider calling for the release of the lawyers? Will he indicate whether there is anything the Government could do to help the fledgling peace process?

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