Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

From the way he talks about the health service, one would swear he was not a player. He seems to get an easy time on radio, as if he were just one of the talking heads who are invited into studios to discuss the health service and not the man in charge of it.

I, too, raise concerns about Ibrahim Halawa. This is the tenth time his court case has been postponed. Some 493 other people are on trial with him at the same time. It is a mass trial. He has been held in captivity for over 852 days and has not been afforded a fair trial. The concern is about the Irish Government's activities, or lack thereof. As I have said many times before, Egyptian law 140 allows for a prisoner to be repatriated to his home country before a trial. Although the Government and Minister said it could not be done, they silently supported a law 140 application in February. They forgot to tell anybody about it. During the summer, they repeatedly said they could not enforce law 140 or ask the Egyptian President to invoke it until after a trial. Now, they have admitted it could be done but have said it would not be the best possible course of action. Given the trend of what the Government has said about the case during the past 12 months, it is shocking that it has been inconsistent.

The Minister was here last week. The fact that the case is to be heard next Saturday is a cause of concern. There is grave concern that a death sentence could be passed, as has happened in other cases. The Government seems unaware that, unlike in the case of Peter Greste, an Australian national whose release was secured by the Australian Prime Minister before his trial, if Ibrahim Halawa is found guilty and sentenced to death, law 140 may not be applicable, given that it applies only in cases in which the sentence can be carried out in the jurisdiction to which a person is repatriated. The Government does not seem to be concerned about it or aware of it. Ibrahim Halawa has been tortured and kept in detention for a long time. Last Sunday was his 20th birthday and he has been in jail since he was 17. The myriad UN declarations and conventions the Egyptian Government has breached is astonishing. More astonishing is the fact that the Irish Government has been so silent.