Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)

It is very simple: the Department of justice has refused to give the visas needed for children from Palestine to come here and play hurling. That can still be changed. It requires a Government decision to say, "We are going to grant the visas; it is the very least we can do." I urge the Government to act at this late stage. As well as the GAA players being denied entry, we know there have been real issues with medical evacuation of Palestinian children. Over the weekend, I learned that around 20 Palestinian students have applied for visas to attend college in Ireland from September and that only two of them have been approved. There looks to be a pattern here. By way of contrast, any Israeli citizen can travel visa-free to Ireland for up to 90 days. An Israeli child could travel to Ireland and play GAA here with no trouble. Why are we not doing everything we can for these people, to let them play, study and access medical treatment in Ireland?

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