Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I too spoke to Senator Andrews, at the Deputy's request, the other day. I have kept in contact with him in recent days. I had the opportunity to meet some of the families here the other day when we had the all-party motion in the Dáil, as did our head of consular services and the Minister of State with responsibility for international aid, Deputy Richmond.

My understanding is that there are 16 Irish citizens in the current part of the flotilla. He is right about the number 22. I was teasing through this - there is a further part of the flotilla to come. To the best of our knowledge, the part of the flotilla that has been intercepted has 16 Irish citizens on board. We have confirmation that 14 of them have been detained. We believe 16 have been detained. I want to give the House very accurate information. I expect all 16 have been detained but to date we have confirmation that only 14 have been detained. Our ambassador, Sonya McGuinness, is doing a very good job. She has already been in touch with the Israeli foreign ministry and has requested consular access to those citizens. We are continuing to pursue that.

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