Student Visas Seanad Éireann — 2026-09-22 ============================================================ Aubrey McCarthy (IND), University of Dublin I thank the Minister of State. I hear what he is saying about there being other war-torn areas, but today I specifically want to deal with the 58 visa refusals for people from Gaza. Yesterday, The Irish Times told the story of 19-year-old Hazem Faris from Gaza. He secured a full scholarship to study computer science in SETU in Waterford. His fees, accommodation and living expenses were covered. He came from Gaza where his home was destroyed. He had been displaced several times. He had lost all his friends and neighbours, yet his visa was refused. Basically, it was refused because there was insufficient documentation. There were gaps in his education, employment history and insufficient evidence of obligations to return to his home country. My fear is that this is a young guy whose home country has been demolished. He has not got the paperwork or the evidence and is therefore judged on that. The Minister of State mentioned how all cases are treated the same and a scholarship cannot guarantee a visa. However, the Lisbon Recognition Convention, to which Ireland is a party, allows HEIs and other arms to take a different approach. When the Department is looking at a visa application from the likes of Hazem Faris, how does a 19-year-old living through the most awful circumstances provide all of the documentation needed? How does somebody explain their present circumstances when they are coming from the likes of Gaza? I agree that Sudan and other areas are similar, but it is something we have to address. --- 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/seanad/2026-09-22/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:49+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-09-22