Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)

I accept entirely the point about Israel's role, and the Jordanian authorities have also presented an obstacle to this. I have met with many Palestinians who are here who have family members, be it brothers and sisters or whatever, stuck in Gaza in this absolute horror. I agree that we do not want to facilitate the ethnic cleansing of Gaza but we also do not want to say "No" to people who want to come and join their families here. These people come to us, and I am sure the Minister has also heard many awful stories. These people have lost many members of their families, they are trying to get out and they are trying to join their families that are here. What should we tell them? At the moment we write to the Minister through parliamentary questions and we write to the immigration service, but we just get boilerplate answers that do not facilitate them. Can more practical assistance be provided to them with a point of contact in the Department in order to be able to give more assistance to people in those sort of circumstances?

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