Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)

I too welcome the impending release of Gilad Shalit. In recent years all sides of the House have called for his release because of the great burden it placed on his family and the fact that there is impending peace in the Middle East. As my colleague, Senator Leyden, suggested, I hope this is a step in the right direction. It is difficult to understand how the Palestinian people can call for justice for themselves when they would not afford the basic rules of the treatment of prisoners to Gilad Shalit. He was not allowed to receive letters or parcels from his family and he was not allowed to receive visits from the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. It does the Palestinian cause no service when those involved treat a prisoner in such a way. We welcome his impending release.

Yesterday I spoke about the eurozone and Angela Merkel and Monsieur Sarkozy. There was letter in the Irish Times today on the eurozone. It was signed by 100 people from the eurozone, including ten former presidents, ten ministers for foreign affairs and five former finance ministers. It included only one Irish signatory, a man who spent most of his adult life in the United Kingdom, Lord Haskins. Three countries from the eurozone had no representative signature on the letter, Estonia, Latvia and Malta. One half of the 100 signatories were not from the 17 countries in the eurozone. Basically, they suggested that Ireland and other eurozone countries should sign over the running of their finances to the Germans. I call on the Leader to bring the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade into the House to discuss this issue because, again, we are being told what will happen after the fact.