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

The Deputies are correct in saying that every effort was made to ensure that Ibrahim was brought home. There were ten engagements with the Taoiseach at presidential level, 20 direct engagements at foreign ministry level and we had up to 40 members of staff from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade working on this case at any given time and around 20,000 person-hours were spent on this case. A significant amount of effort and work was put into this case.

Ibrahim Halawa's name has been cleared, his innocence confirmed and the most important thing now is that he returns home. Unfortunately, we cannot say when precisely he will return to Dublin. The Egyptian courts require a number of procedures, formalities and administration which all the defendants, of which there are 453, must go through. Our priority is that he will be in a position to return home to Dublin with minimum delay and we have done everything at this stage that we can. Our embassy has prepared and issued a new passport for him and we are trying to address the practicalities relating to his departure from Egypt, including those relating to his immigration status. The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Coveney, and the Taoiseach are personally being briefed and updated on developments and stand ready to intervene directly if there is any sense of unreasonable delay regarding his release or his clearance to leave Egypt.

See this speech in context