Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats)

I will pick up where I finished my speech on the Sumud flotilla yesterday. I was emphasising a point I have made again and again on this floor. This Government has a unique mandate, given to it by a population that is unwavering and unequivocal in our support for Gaza. Sadly, the Minister of State's Government has squandered this by not acting. We have heard the right words from it, but it has not acted on the occupied territories Bill, which remains unenacted a year after the election campaign in which the Government parties promised it and which it is watering down with the removal of services. It has not acted on addressing the role of our Central Bank in the approval of Israeli bonds. I realise that has now ceased but that was not as the result of Government actions. It has not acted to stop our airspace and Shannon Airport being used to transport munitions and personnel. At EU level, it has not pushed with all of the might of a member state of the European Union for the suspension of the EU-Israel association agreement. The Tánaiste referenced this in his opening speech, referring to it as a sanction. It is not a sanction. It is the revocation of a privilege. We have not got near sanctions yet.

All of that aside, I will focus my contribution on the issue of asylum and specifically on family reunification. I welcome to the Public Gallery today Bushra and her son Mohammed. I will tell their story. Bushra is a mother of four and was accompanied to Ireland by her son Mohammed as a medical evacuee. She had to leave her other children behind in the care of their elderly grandmother because her husband was killed in the same bombing that injured Mohammed and burned the passports of her three children who remain in Gaza. In that bombing, Mohammed lost one leg and severely injured the other. He has had 39 surgeries, 13 of them without anaesthetic. He speaks about his siblings every day. Bushra is desperate to the reunited with her children. I spoke with her before I came into the Chamber today. She put it so clearly, saying that this is life and death. It is a must. She speaks with her children but she cannot read them stories. She speaks to them to check that they are still alive. She was medically evacuated ten weeks ago. This Government promised family reunification but it has not happened. I appreciate that it is not simple and that there are difficulties in getting people out of Gaza right now. Bushra and the people supporting and surrounding her are very clear, however. They will remove those barriers if this Government shows its determination and willingness to bring her children to her.

I will also put on record that I believe the Tánaiste and other Cabinet Ministers misled the Dáil in dismissing concerns from Members on this side of the House some weeks ago that the Government's reasons for denying visas for the Palestine GAA group were not actually child safeguarding issues. We have since learned that an official in the Department of justice communicated with the Minister of justice that the principal concern was overstay. What I am hearing is that families are being treated differently from students and not being given the access to the family reunification the Irish people want to offer them.

I will finish by again emphasising that we, the Irish people, have given the Government a mandate to act but that it is failing to do so in the many ways I have mentioned but primarily in failing to bring families like Bushra and her son Mohammed's together again.

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