Consular Services Dail Éireann — 2026-04-28 ============================================================ Frankie Feighan (FG), Sligo-Leitrim I am responding on behalf of my ministerial colleagues in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade who are unavailable due to their ministerial duties this evening. Providing consular assistance to Irish citizens who find themselves in difficulty abroad, including in cases of arrest or detention, is a cornerstone of the work of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and its embassies and consulates around the world. Each year the Department provides support to a significant number of Irish citizens arrested or detained overseas. Our ethos has always been to place a strong emphasis on ensuring that Irish citizens receive timely and empathetic consular assistance. We are aware of the case referred to by the Deputy. Consular assistance has been provided to the citizen referred to since September 2025, soon after their detention. I can confirm that a dedicated consular officer in the Consulate General of Ireland in Munich has been assigned to support the citizen and their family and has provided support and advice in accordance with the Department's consular assistance charter. I can further confirm that staff in the Consulate General in Munich, including the consul general and deputy consul general, have undertaken four consular visits to the citizen in prison, most recently on 10 April. We are in regular contact with the citizen and with family members. Consular visits are an opportunity to check on the welfare of a citizen, ascertain if there are any medical issues that require attention, offer pastoral support, and assess the conditions of detention. Our consular officers can also act as conduits, helping to share information from and to loved ones in Ireland if that is required by the citizen. I understand that the conditions of detention in the case referred to by the Deputy are the same as those of any other person in their situation, which includes access to video calls and in-person visits. Prisoners at the facility in question also have access to a social worker. I understand that court proceedings in this case started yesterday. As laid out in the consular assistance charter, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and its embassies and consulates abroad are precluded from intervening in the judicial and legal processes of another country. Therefore, it would not be appropriate to comment on the ongoing legal case. The Deputy asked that we send monitors to the trial. I will bring this back to the Minister. I assure the Deputy that the Department will continue to provide all necessary and appropriate consular assistance to the citizen and their family. --- 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/2026-04-28/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:52+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-04-28