John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

With my colleagues, I welcome members of the Halawa family to Dáil Éireann. They have welcomed me into their home in Ballycullen on a number of occasions to share their concerns about their brother and son, Ibrahim.

Much of what I wanted to say has been said by previous speakers, but the purpose of the motion, in part, is to reassure the Halawa family that this Parliament is serious, that it speaks with one voice and that the officials who are under the direction of Ministers in the Executive elected by this Parliament are serious about the work they carry out.

I hope the Halawa family takes some consolation from the fact that not only is the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade advocating for them, and I believe he does that job earnestly and to the very best of his ability, as do his officials, the family also have two other Cabinet Ministers, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Zappone, and the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, who will advocate for them at Cabinet.

When I was a councillor with South Dublin County Council, Somaia Halawa and her nephew came to speak. They gave to the 40 councillors an insight into what life is like for Ibrahim. They met with unanimous support.

I have some previous experience of the consular service and the civil servants who work in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. I would question some of the Deputies regarding some intemperate comments. Do Deputies think that the Minister and his officials do not know all of those things about regime conditions or the Egyptian political context? I know full well that the officials and the Minister are aware of these issues and they understand that this is the context in which they strive to do their very best for this Irishman. As his teacher, Codie Preston, wrote in a letter to The Irish Times, Ibrahim is an Irish citizen who speaks with a Dublin accent and whose build belies his youth and his sensitive nature. This is the 14th adjournment of the trial and it simply would not be acceptable or allowed to happen in another jurisdiction.

I regard consular officials in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as some of the great patriots of this State. They are a last line of defence for Irish citizens and the officials need our support and appreciation. I hope the Minister would convey my appreciation to them because I know they will be working tirelessly. Ibrahim is still alive and - without wanting to be dramatic - I wonder to what extent the efforts of our consular service and our officials have contributed to that. However, that is no consolation to the Halawa family.

I support the Minister and understand that, because of the context, there is a certain amount of pulling our punches in the situation if we are to be responsible in this regard. I do not know if the Minister has spoken to our allies in the European Union on an individual nation basis to see what pressure or influence they could bring to bear. In dealing with such a regime - and I want to avoid any intemperate language - I believe the next obvious step would be the speedy dispatch of a parliamentary delegation to Cairo and to inform the Egyptian ambassador in Dublin of the unanimous support expressed by this Parliament, which represents the State, regarding the continued detention of an Irish citizen, which I am sure the Minister will do as a matter of course.

See this speech in context