Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The point about the backlog in questions has been made. It must be addressed. These questions relate to Europe and I take the point about European statements, post and pre, but a backlog in questions to the Taoiseach is constantly building. More time needs to be allowed for them and we should be allowed to asked topical questions to avoid a backlog building. If the Taoiseach is committed to the democratic and political reform about which the Government promised so much, he should take this point on board.

Is it not the case that Europe and European leaders are sleepwalking towards the possible break-up of the EU? If that happens, responsibility will lie entirely with the EU's leaders and authorities, given their blind commitment to a failed and, in the case of Greece, vindictive policy of inflicting austerity on the most vulnerable and least well-off sectors of society. The belligerence of the EU in wanting to continue inflicting these discredited policies on the Greek people, to the point of millions of ordinary Greeks experiencing extraordinary suffering, and the failure of the policy being self-evident mean that we are at the brink of the dominos within the EU falling. Despite this, there is an utter complacency, behind which seems to be what cannot be described as anything other than a politically motivated vindictiveness towards any group of people who refuse, even in the smallest way, to accept crushing austerity.

The issue that has brought us to the brink is the EU's determination to have Greece cut pensions, make it easier to fire workers and refuse to rehire workers into a public sector that has been slashed to pieces. These are the points of conflict in doing a deal, with the EU saying "No, no, no" to a country that has been savaged, where the levels of suicide and poverty have gone through the roof and homelessness and despair are at extraordinary levels. The EU says that, on top of this, Greece must cut pensions and under no circumstances restore jobs in the public sector. This is appalling and has brought us to the brink.

Is it not time for the Taoiseach to raise his voice against the madness of the central institutions and European leaders being singlehandedly responsible for beginning the break-up of the EU?

The other worrying feature, evident in Greece and now in Britain, is that different forms of disillusionment with and alienation from the centralised, autocratic and failed economic policies of the European Union are now leading to a very worrying rise in racism across Europe. If in Greece the Syriza Government fails and is driven out and if there is a further economic collapse there, the beneficiary will be Golden Dawn. That is not a pretty prospect. In Britain, the beneficiary, to some extent at least, has been the vile UK Independence Party, UKIP. I am glad it did not win as many seats as it had hoped. These are people who have traded on racism and anti-immigrant sentiment. Prime Minister Cameron, in order to try to see off the threat of UKIP, has moved in the direction of that sort of anti-immigrant rhetoric. That is dangerous. It is dangerously reminiscent of what happened in the 1930s and 1940s when economic crisis led to the rise of racism and xenophobia, with disastrous consequences. Is the Taoiseach not worried that the policy failures in the European Union and the blind commitment to austerity could possibly break up the Union and lead to a worrying rise in racism?

Mr. Ibrahim Halawa's sisters are in the Visitors Gallery. I believe Deputy Paul Murphy has brought them in today. As they are here, I wish to ask the Taoiseach, as I am sure will Deputy Murphy, what he is doing to secure the release of Ibrahim Halawa, an Irish citizen who is being tortured in Egyptian prisons and who has been framed, essentially in a politically trumped-up case against him, for doing nothing more than engaging in peaceful protest against what is a brutal and despotic regime, led by President el-Sisi.

Films have been made about the Guildford Four, the Birmingham Six and Irish citizens who languished in prison in Britain having been framed for political purposes although they committed no crimes. Since we are all appalled that this would have been done to our citizens in the past, why are we, including the Taoiseach, not much more vocal and robust in demanding the release of Ibrahim Halawa and the lifting of the charges, which are clearly trumped up? Mr. Halawa, along with hundreds of ordinary Egyptians, has been framed by a despotic, nasty government that is now in power in Egypt. What is the Taoiseach doing about this?

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