Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On this day of great hope, we certainly hope that we will have a summer and get back to some form of normality. The feeling of happiness on every local and national radio station I listened to this morning, and from speaking to people, is just unreal. Let us hope matters continue in this way, but we must always be wary and careful because that is the only way we will reopen and stay open.

I agree with Senator Dolan about the jobs announcement for Roscommon and Galway. It is particularly good coming in the light of the recent Industrial Development Authority, IDA, five-year outlook report which left Roscommon out. It was the only county not mentioned in the report, which has caused a lot of anger in Roscommon. It is good to see a private operator coming in with some jobs.Hopefully, the IDA will do more on job creation in the county now.

I want to devote my final minute to return to something that I raised here in recent weeks which is the case of Robert Pether who is from Elphin, County Roscommon, a town local to me, and who is out in the Middle East. Unfortunately, he has been taken into custody by the Iraqi authorities. I sincerely thank the Leader for contacting the Department of Foreign Affairs. His wife, Desree, and three children have asked me to pass on my thanks to the Leader and to the Seanad for supporting them. Unfortunately, we seem to have stalled now. I ask the Leader again today to use her good offices to go back to the Department to ask that either the Minister, Deputy Coveney, or some of his officials to have a phone conversation with Mr. Pether's wife. They need this. They are desperately upset. Desree Pether's father came from Dublin and was initially a McCarthy. She and her three children are Irish citizens. Their children's father, Robert, was in the process of getting his Irish citizenship. We have responsibility here, although this is primarily a matter for the Australian Government. This man and his family desperately need help.

I am also thinking of the O'Halloran family in Dublin whose father and husband is locked up in China also at the moment. These are desperate situations and we need to deal with them the best way we can. I accept that there are diplomatic channels that have to be dealt with, but we need to pressurise wherever we can.