Middle East Dail Éireann — 2024-01-25 ============================================================ Richard Boyd Barrett (PBP), Dún Laoghaire I handed the Tánaiste a letter this week from Zak Hania's wife. He is an Irish citizen trapped in Gaza and is not being allowed out by Israel. She is appealing to the Tánaiste to assist him. Two other Irish citizens contacted me who are also trapped. They are in effect being held hostage by Israel. I want to know what the Government is doing to try to get them out and what it has said to the Israelis or European counterparts about the fact Israel is preventing Irish citizens from leaving the horror of Gaza. I also sent the Tánaiste an extensive list of people who are citizens of Ireland with family in Gaza who are appealing for assistance from the Government to allow them to exit the horror of Gaza. What is the Government doing on that? Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central The Deputy also attacked me when I went to Israel to seek to get Irish citizens out of Gaza. His fellow travellers did likewise, as well as trolling and misinformation online. We got 56 people out. Richard Boyd Barrett (PBP), Dún Laoghaire I do not think the Tánaiste should have gone to Israel. That is my view. Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central Yet the Deputy comes in here and says he is handing me letters to get people out. Richard Boyd Barrett (PBP), Dún Laoghaire No, I think the European Union----- Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central You are just a hypocrite. Richard Boyd Barrett (PBP), Dún Laoghaire The European Union----- Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central Come off it. Richard Boyd Barrett (PBP), Dún Laoghaire -----should crack the whip on Israel over the treatment of our citizens. Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central Regarding the specific people, I will do everything I can to get people out of Gaza and that means engaging with the Israeli authorities. Our ambassador in Israel has engaged repeatedly with Israeli authorities and that resulted in very substantial numbers of Irish citizens and their dependants getting out of Gaza. If you had your way, nobody would get out of Gaza. Richard Boyd Barrett (PBP), Dún Laoghaire Do you think it is acceptable that Israel is holding our citizens hostage? Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central You are just behaving hypocritically. I went out there to get people out and you attacked me. Then you come in the following day and say "Please get them out". Come off it. What credibility have you? Richard Boyd Barrett (PBP), Dún Laoghaire What credibility has the European Union for allowing citizens to be treated in that way? Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central You are a disgrace. You are unbelievable. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2024-01-25/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:52:35+00:00 Sitting date: 2024-01-25