Frances Fitzgerald (Fine Gael)

I wish to share my time with Senator Hannigan.

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Ahern, to the House today and thank him for coming here to address this all-party motion. Many Senators have expressed their concern about the situation in which Ms Ingrid Betancourt finds herself in Colombia today. Any right-thinking person would be horrified at her situation. It is very distressing to read of the appalling circumstances in which she has been held for the past number of years. I am sure many Senators have read Lara Marlowe's accounts in The Irish Times of what has been happening to her. Information has come to light through one of the hostages who has been freed. In a recent article in The Irish Times, Lara Marlowe wrote that "saving Betancourt is now a race against time".

In the letter which was smuggled out from the jungle where she has been kept chained to a tree and held in the most appalling conditions, Ingrid Betancourt described herself and other hostages as the living dead and that her legendary strength had left her. She said that "nearly six years of captivity have shown me that I am no longer as courageous, intelligent and strong as I thought". The article stated that in a letter to her mother, she said that death would be a relief and "a sweet option". Lara Marlowe also wrote that Ingrid Betancourt's letter stated that she had found out that her father had died from reading an old newspaper cutting in the encampment.

It is almost beyond belief to imagine that people would be as cruel and inhuman to any human being as they have been to this woman. Ingrid Betancourt was a Green Party Senator in Colombia, was very involved in the peace process, took risks for her country and went to meet with the rebels. Some would say that what she did was somewhat foolhardy but she said she felt she had to take those risks for peace at the time. It must be an appalling situation for her two children to experience and for them to hear on an almost weekly basis that their mother's health is deteriorating.

Most recent reports suggest that her life is at risk. I commend the efforts being made all around the world. This is why it is important that we play our part in the Seanad. The French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, has taken many initiatives in recent weeks to try to ensure that she is freed. He has made people available with airplanes and has involved the army to ensure that if a rescue is possible, it will be there to do it.

At European level we have been playing our part. The President of the European Commission, José Manuel Durão Barroso, has been meeting with the President of Colombia to try to effect change. This is what we must do. We must work at national, European and world level. Ingrid Betancourt is a European citizen by virtue of her dual French-Colombian citizenship. Her only crime is her commitment to democracy and freedom of speech and expression. Under no circumstances does anybody deserve to be treated the way in which she has treated.

I ask the Minister to ensure that the Government raises her situation at national, European and UN level, given the urgency of the situation. I ask that the Government takes every action it can. We must show solidarity with a woman who is being kept in the most extreme circumstances.