Lynn Ruane (Independent)

We must be very clear on the exact steps. An article published in The Irish Times yesterday insinuated that no one would be medically evacuated if they did not have a surviving parent to care for them. This is inaccurate. Bushra's three children did not have a surviving parent to evacuate with them. On aiding them on the other side, I do not know how to even begin to imagine a scenario where we try to co-ordinate the evacuation of three children on the other side, which means we need to identify an advocate or another family member to come with them. The problem is that all we know is that the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, brought a memorandum to the Government this week recognising that Ireland should also evacuate patients' siblings for humanitarian reasons, but there has been no more clarity about when those family members will be reunited. We understand that the intention is reunification, but there is still no detail on how we will evacuate children to join their siblings, to ensure we offer full refuge and care to families. That is currently not happening and, unfortunately, the response still has not provided that clarity from the Department.