Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I concur with what the previous speaker said and support Deputy Connolly's amendment. I am thinking in particular of Seán Binder, who spent some time in County Kerry. He was arrested four months after arriving in Lesbos in 2018. He faces trial, as we know. Particularly in light of what happened in the English Channel, there is a feeling out there that there are hordes of people fleeing wars, most of whom are entitled to asylum, who are being lured in by people traffickers, criminals and so on. That is not the case. What has really happened over the past few years is that the UK in particular has stopped people applying for asylum. Their cases are stronger than ever. The west, let us face it, was complicit in creating the situations in Syria and in Iraq and for the Kurds which have led to all these people trying to get over here.

The reason I support the amendment is that the Bill, as drafted, would allow for people providing humanitarian assistance to be charged with an offence while their defence is awaited. They could perhaps be held on remand while awaiting trial. That should not be the case. There is something wrong with that. We need to reach out to some of the people trying to get over from France and create a Syrian response to what has been happening to them because it cannot continue. It is particularly ironic that, coming up to Christmas, Middle Eastern families - women, including pregnant women, and children - are drowning in probably the busiest sea channel in the world. They are taking the risk. They are buying kayaks in sports shops in their desperation to try to get across. Anyone who is legitimately trying to help those people cannot be criminalised.

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