Malcolm Byrne (Wicklow-Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Next week the Taoiseach and members of the Government are due to host the Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi in Ireland. While it is important we maintain strong diplomatic, economic and cultural links with China, and reflecting on the Taoiseach's very balanced and measured speech to the Royal Irish Academy in May 2023, I hope he will raise questions of continuing human rights abuses in China, particularly in Xinjiang and Tibet. However, I also want to raise the case of Jimmy Lai who has been detained for more than 1,500 days under China's national security law in Hong Kong. As the Taoiseach is probably aware, among his legal team is Caoilfhionn Gallagher, one of Ireland's foremost human rights lawyers. I ask for a commitment that when meeting with the foreign minister, the Taoiseach will raise China's human rights abuses.

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