Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Crown and welcome the Minister of State to the House. I am happy that this motion is being discussed. As many others have stated, it is only one of a broad range of issues that could be discussed for more time than we have today. That there is cross-party support shows that we all condemn the actions of Boko Haram and want the girls released without harm immediately.

Boko Haram's latest attacks on schools, particularly the recent kidnapping of more than 200 girls in north-east Nigeria, are sickening and have been rightly condemned by people across the world. The kidnapping has sparked outrage and, for the first time, people are taking notice of the dreadful war in Nigeria and its effect on civilians. According to the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, the war has cost 4,000 lives and caused 500,000 people to flee their homes. The kidnapping not only highlights the fight against radical Islamists in the region, but also the right to education, especially for girls, a point that has been raised numerous times in this debate.

The abductees are innocent schoolgirls trying to get an education, in itself a human right. In 2000, all UN member states adopted the millennium development goals and pledged to reach them by 2015. The second goal was universal access to primary school education and the third was the promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women. Although major progress has been achieved in school enrolment levels, poverty and gender are key factors keeping children out of school. Children and adolescents from the poorest households are three times more likely to be out of school than those from the richest households. In even the richest households, girls are more likely to be out of school than boys. Globally, 123 million youths aged between 15 and 24 lack basic reading and writing skills. Some 61% of them are young women.

We need to work together to create a world in which all children, regardless of gender, socio-economic background and circumstance, have access to free, compulsory and quality education. For this reason, it is important that we are united in our condemnation of the kidnapping and that we send a strong signal to all girls of our support for their right to receive a quality education in a safe and secure environment.

Malala Yousafzai - I cannot really pronounce her name, so I apologise for the mispronunciation - was 15 years old when she was shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating for greater and more secure female access to education. Nowhere in the world should it be an act of courage or bravery for a child to attend school. Education is a basic human right and it should shape every child's daily routine regardless of location.

We must ask ourselves why so little media attention was given to this horrific story, especially at the beginning, and why many of the incidents of recent years chronicled in this debate are only being heard of now. For the past few months, news coverage has been dominated by the hunts for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight and survivors of the South Korean ferry accident. This is understandable and I do not condemn it, but why has there not been equal media coverage of the search for the missing girls or of what has generally been happening in Nigeria? Questions must be asked as to why equal priority in air time has not been given globally. Initially, it was mainly feminist, human rights and education activists who were at the forefront of drawing attention to this story. In the modern age of an oversaturation of media-related, show business celebrities, it is time to ask ourselves why there has been such a reluctance to report on these events and what kind of responsibility the global media has for reporting on human atrocities like this one.

More attention should be given to the search as a matter of priority. Hopefully, part of any effort the Government makes will be to ensure there is sufficient attention and that it is at the forefront of people's minds.