Labhrás Ó Murchú (Fianna Fail)

Ireland, in the main, has a proud record when it comes to human rights. This House played a very significant role in that down through the years. It is possibly a temptation when one is embedded with the international economic fraternity that one is afraid to offend the paymasters. In the case of Ireland, we need to be particularly careful in that regard.

A number of human rights issues have been raised in this House from time to time. We raised the issue of the Palestinian people and I think all right thinking people will agree they have not been treated properly. We should salute the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Eamon Gilmore, in this regard. We debated the issue in the Chamber and asked the Government to take a stand. From what I have seen, the Minister has demonstrated an independence of office and the sovereignty of this land and he should be lauded in that regard. In the case of Bahrain, however, where the medical profession has been persecuted for doing what one expects from it, there is a degree of silence. Where a nation has a record on human rights, all agencies and organisations operating in our country are expected to do likewise. This is not the case in regard to Bahrain and I fully support Senator Crown in what he said that we expect all agencies doing business with Bahrain to ensure we are not doing it in a manner that ignores the suffering of the people. As we have seen in other countries such as Iraq and Libya, this type of fraternal acceptance of the lack of human rights in a country comes back to haunt us subsequently. I believe in the case of Bahrain this will be exactly the same.

Yesterday morning I raised the issue of Teresa Tracy. I must admit I was expecting a prompt response in this regard. I got a good response from the Leader but I cannot understand how we can accept what is happening to that elderly lady at present. We are rubbing salt into the wounds of those who are suffering in the community for other reasons. She is a relatively innocent person who is incarcerated and languishing in jail while so many other people who have many questions to answer are going around freely and living a royal life. It cannot be good for the morale of our people to allow that to happen. I hope that in the next 24 hours action will be taken in this regard because, if not, I think the body politic as well as the judicial system will have been dealt a body blow. No one wants to see that happening