Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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186. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the efforts being made to protect an Irish citizen (details supplied), being detained in Abu Dhabi who experienced severe difficulties in obtaining copies of his Irish passport; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15193/15]

Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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I wish to inform the Deputy that my Department, through the Embassy of Ireland in Abu Dhabi, has been providing consular assistance to the individual since his arrest in 2012. As part of that assistance, Embassy officials pay regular consular visits to this person at Al Wathba Central jail in Abu Dhabi. To date this year, the Deputy Head of Mission and Consul at the Embassy in Abu Dhabi has visited the individual on two occasions. Following each visit, the Embassy official met with senior prison officers to raise and discuss with them, any issues of concern reported by the Irish citizen.

Additional support from the Embassy has been extensive and has included securing permission for a friend to visit the person named and facilitating the transfer of funds from the person’s family to their prison account.

The passport of the person named by the Deputy is in the possession of the Emirati authorities, as would be the normal practice for any foreign citizen detained in that country. The Embassy requested and was furnished with a scanned copy of the details page of this passport on 13 April. This was then forwarded on the same date by the Embassy in Abu Dhabi to a family member of the person named.

I wish to assure the Deputy that this Department will continue to offer all appropriate consular assistance to the citizen detained.