Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 12, 15 and 33 together.

I am sure all Members of the House joined with this young man's family and friends on Monday last, 18 September, in welcoming the news from Cairo that he and his three sisters had been acquitted at the conclusion of the trial in which they were defendants along with more than 400 others. This young man's name, Ibrahim Halawa, has been cleared and his innocence confirmed.

This Irish citizen has been deprived of his liberty for four years, and he has endured great hardship and distress. He has missed out on family celebrations, weddings of his siblings and births of nephews and nieces. When he should have been studying and planning his future in Dublin, he was a teenager locked in a prison cell in Cairo.

I want to pay tribute today to this extraordinary young man for his maturity, his strength of character and his resilience.

I would like also to pay tribute to his family for their relentless support of their son and brother throughout the past four years. Their dignity and tenacity have been an inspiration.

The Government's priority now is to support this young citizen and his family in every way that we can in order to ensure that he is able to return home to his family and friends in Dublin as soon as possible.

There are some practical procedures and formalities to be gone through in Egypt before he is able to fly back to Dublin, and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and our embassy team will be assisting and supporting him and his family to work through these processes and to make the necessary arrangements so that he gets home as soon as possible.

It is also appropriate today that I acknowledge the very significant efforts made on this young man's behalf by Members on all sides of this House, and also by fellow public representatives in the Seanad, the European Parliament and councils around the country over the past four years, and not least the Ceann Comhairle and the all-party and all-group delegation that went to Cairo in January to advocate for his release.

I also want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the efforts made on his behalf over the past four years by the staff at our embassy in Cairo and in the consular unit of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

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