Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I would like the Taoiseach to comment on the imprisonment of Mr. Rached Ghannouchi. He is the elected Speaker of the Tunisian Parliament. I met his son at a Palestinian solidarity conference in Oslo a few weeks ago. He is very worried about his father because he is 81 years old. Mr. Ghannouchi is a renowned human rights activist and writer and was a central figure in the Arab Spring. Along with all opposition parliamentarians, trade unionists, etc., he was locked up by the Tunisian dictatorship. I was told that, essentially, the new dictator of Tunisia is allying himself with el-Sisi, who has done exactly the same in Egypt. The two of them are working to crush the democratic revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt. Once again, we are just getting tea and sympathy from the EU rather than action. Will the Tánaiste call for Mr. Ghannouchi's release and that of the other parliamentarians and trade unionists and make serious representations to the Tunisian dictatorship in this regard?

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