Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----how she is being wrongly presented by people on this. President von der Leyen is committed to peace and wants to see an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East. She is also someone who has been a good friend to Ireland on Brexit, and someone who is responsible for saving many lives through the roll-out of the Covid vaccine programme.

In response to Deputy Murphy, I am happy to immediately engage with him on the specific case he raised. I should not get too much involved in a back-and-forth with the universities as I respect their autonomy, independence and all that sort of stuff but international fees are set by them and therefore, that answer they gave the Deputy makes me bristle a little bit. There is absolutely nothing to stop any university today deciding not to levy those fees on a student. They do not need a Government initiative to do so. We have universities of sanctuary, for example, as well. I do understand that in general, our universities have been taking a case-by-case approach to this but I am disappointed to hear of the situation that Amir finds himself in. We are doing work - I will not waste time going through it all now - on scholarship programmes and fellowship programmes for funding schools in the Middle East so maybe I could send the Deputy a note regarding our position on all of this.

In response to Deputy Boyd Barrett, this country, small as it is, is doing everything humanly possible to continue to articulate for peace. I share the view that there is an inconsistency in approach being taken by the world to the conflict in Ukraine, which needs to immediately end as it is an illegal, brutal invasion - and I welcome the Deputy saying those things - and to what is happening in the Middle East. It is a humanitarian catastrophe and there are war crimes being committed. It is important that we call out both. Ireland does, and others should.

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