Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Tá mé ag roinnt mo chuid ama le mo chomhghleacaí, an Teachta Andrews. Ireland was drawn into what happened in Belarus by the nature of the arrest of Roman Protasevich. The fact that a Ryanair aeroplane - and therefore, in many senses, an Irish aeroplane - was forced into an emergency landing, which brought increased dangers for all the 130 passengers on board, made the Government's intervention expected and necessary. The Government has been strong on this, demanding answers from the Belarusian Government in relation to this emergency landing. There has been clear shock from the Irish people that this has happened and that one of our aeroplanes was forced into an emergency landing.

The answer that has been received so far that there were fears there was a bomb on board the same aeroplane that carried Roman Protasevich certainly seems a lot more than a coincidence. The concern internationally regarding freedom of the press has been quite resounding and the action by the EU, through the imposition of sanctions, has been very swift. It is deeply unfortunate that the same swift action in terms of the immediate imposition of sanctions with regard to the freedom of the press was not taken by the EU in the targeting of media outlets by the Israeli air force in Gaza two weeks ago. We must be clear that we tolerate no attacks on the media, no matter where they are. Outrage and swift action should not simply be confined to attacks on the media. The killing of civilians, including many children, in Gaza should have been sufficient reason for the international community to act swiftly on Israel's apartheid regime.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs met recently with the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, about the situation in Belarus. I note that both were unequivocal in their outrage regarding same. While the US does not have a direct say about what will happen to Roman Protasevich, it does have a direct say on another journalist who is being held captive, namely, Julian Assange. He is someone I have raised in this Chamber on several occasions. I hope the Minister used this opportunity to raise his case and call for his immediate release, as it would be utterly hypocritical not to do so when raising the case of another journalist, Roman Protasevich. Julian Assange is facing charges for spreading information in a normal journalistic way and the silence on this from the international community has been deafening, as has been the silence of the very newspapers that published the information he gathered.

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