Averil Power (Fianna Fail)

I agree fully agree that it is an important issue, but it is not the only one. Everybody knows that the education system is broader and that one cannot merely look at one symptom and assume that it is the outcome of a particular issue. One needs to look at all of the symptoms and diagnose the problem properly, particularly when it is so acute.

Because it is important to do so, I draw the attention of the House to the fact that medics, some of them Irish-trained, have been sentenced to 15 years in prison by a military court in Bahrain. The House has discussed this issue previously. The only crimes of the persons concerned were to assist peaceful protesters who had been shot at by the Bahraini authorities and Saudi troops who had come over the border to put down a peaceful expression of dissent against the Bahraini Government. We passed an all-party motion tabled by Senator John Crown earlier in the year. I ask the Leader to bring this development to the attention of the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and urge them to do everything they possibly can as soon as possible to put pressure on the Bahraini authorities to respect the basic principles of international human rights to which they have signed up and to let the persons concerned out before it is too late.

I second Senator MacSharry's amendment to the Order of Business, that the Minister for Health come into the House. The number of Members on the other side who have supported the principle is encouraging and I hope they will support it in the vote also.