Irish Prisoners Abroad
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-21
============================================================

Richard Boyd Barrett (PBP), Dún Laoghaire

This points to the duplicity of the Government. It says it is appalled at the treatment of flotilla activists at the hands of the Israeli regime. The flotilla activists, before they were detained, or kidnapped, urged for a vote in favour of the sanctions Bill to sanction Israel but the Government condemned it, said there should not be business as usual and came in here and voted against sanctions. We are getting the same duplicity in the case of Daniel.
Will the Minister send observers to the trial, which is what the family are asking for, because it is a show trial? It is absolutely outrageous. Why are the detainees even in custody? They are not a threat to anybody. They are being kept in solitary confinement before their trial in a high-security courthouse behind a glass cage, having been brought in handcuffs. The judge is speaking about them as if they are terrorists when they are actually peace activists opposing German complicity with the genocide in Israel via Elbit Systems, which provides Israel with weapons.
Is the Minister going to send observers? I am going to try to get an all-party group to go across to the trial. We will see whether all the parties will send someone. I know the Opposition will, but will the Government do so? Even German MPs are being refused access to the courtroom by the judge. That is how much of a show trial it is.

---

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/2026-05-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:58+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-21