Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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58. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the recent efforts made by his Department to secure the release of a person (details supplied) detained without trial in Egypt; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3037/17]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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This consular case continues to be a top priority for the Government and substantial resources and time are being devoted to it, by the Taoiseach, by me as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, by officials in my Department, by our Ambassador and his team in Cairo, and by the entire Irish diplomatic network. The Government is doing everything it possibly can to ensure that the Egyptian authorities are in no doubt about our determination to see this young man returned to his home and his family.

I acknowledge and express my appreciation to the Ceann Comhairle, and to all of the members of the cross-party delegation that went to Cairo recently to meet this citizen and to hear his story at first-hand, and to press the case for his return to Ireland with the Egyptian authorities at the highest levels. These messages have been clearly and repeatedly conveyed by the Government, and it is very useful that the Egyptian authorities are clear on the fact that there is absolute unanimity across Dáil Éireann on this matter.

The Taoiseach has been in direct contact with Egyptian President el-Sisi on numerous occasions and has called on him to exercise his powers under Egyptian law to resolve this case and return this young man to Ireland. He has done so in face-to-face meetings on two occasions and also by telephone and by letter. The Taoiseach most recently wrote to President el-Sisi about the case in November. For my part, I have engaged continuously on this case with my Egyptian counterpart, Foreign Minister Shoukry, and I once again raised this case with him when I met him in Paris at the Middle East Peace Conference on Sunday, January 15th.

The trial in which our citizen is a defendant along with more than 400 others was back in court for a further hearing on 17 January. The hearing saw witnesses called and cross-examined for the first time since the trial began. This may be an indication that the trial has now, at last, moved into a substantive phase and that a conclusion may finally be in prospect. The Irish Government has been present at and has observed every hearing in the trial to date and our Embassy was again represented at the hearing on 17 January. The next hearing will be on 14 February and the Embassy will once again be present on that occasion to observe the proceedings.

The Egyptian President has consistently advised us that the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary must be respected, and that the Egyptian Government cannot intervene until after the trial has concluded. The President has also consistently made clear to us that he is anxious to resolve this issue as soon as he can, and that he will be able to intervene in the case once the trial has ended. I welcome the fact that he reiterated this to the Oireachtas delegation when they met with him in Cairo on January 11th.

I and my colleagues in Government and our officials at every level will continue to do everything possible and appropriate to engage with the authorities in Cairo on this citizen’s behalf both directly and through and with EU and international partners.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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59. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will report on representations that he has made to international bodies regarding the persecution of the Rohingya population in Myanmar; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3056/17]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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Ireland has been active in raising concerns regarding the treatment of the Rohingya community in Myanmar/Burma at a multilateral level over recent years. In 2016, Ireland supported the EU-led resolution on the situation of human rights in Myanmar/Burma at the 31st session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in March 2016. This resolution conveyed the HRC’s serious concerns over human rights violations in the country, including the situation in Rakhine State and particularly with respect to religious and ethnic minorities, including the Rohingya minority. Ireland also raised this issue in a statement at the 32nd session of the HRC in June 2016 and during the review of Myanmar’s human rights record at the HRC’s Universal Periodic Review in November 2015.

Ireland has also supported the inclusion of this issue in the EU’s contacts with the Government of Myanmar, including in the most recent EU-Myanmar Human Rights Dialogue which took place on 22 November 2016.

I am particularly concerned about the recent outbreak of violence in Rakhine State, which began in the wake of attacks on police posts in October 2016. I support the concerns expressed by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein in December 2016, in which the Commissioner called for access by independent monitors and an independent investigation of allegations of human rights violations by the security forces in their response to these attacks. Ireland has also actively called for the restoration of access for humanitarian aid to the region.

My Department will continue to raise these concerns in our contacts with international bodies, in the context of our membership of the EU and the UN, as well as in our bilateral contacts with the Government of Myanmar.