Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is missing the point. Obviously, it great that they are raising the matter but there is a major contradiction. While they are raising these matters verbally, Government actions are actually facilitating a situation whereby people are either being kept in Libya in detention centres or are being sent back there.

It is an extraordinary irony that we hear people throughout the European Union expressing their horror at Donald Trump's vision of building a wall between the USA and Mexico. The reality is that the tactics being adopted by the European establishment towards asylum seekers and refugees coming to our shores are worse, notably so because of the actions in Libya. We have thousands of kilometres of land borders, a military push-back against refugees at sea and billions of euro going to weapons companies and on border security. We are facilitating it. The Government says it is desperate to keep these people there, but it facilitates what is happening at the same time and that is not good enough any more.

See this speech in context