Hear, hear.

Déanaim comhghairdeas leis Tom Hickey and I wish everyone a happy Christmas. I want to remember Private Seán Rooney, who was killed in the cause of peace. He gave his life in the cause of peace on this day last year. It was a death which "pierced the heart" of his family, as they said. In the context of everything that is happening in the Middle East, we have a proud tradition in this country of peacekeeping. I am proud of the contributions that our Taoiseach and Tánaiste have made, and the moral leadership they ha…

Hear, hear.

I welcome the resolution by the UN General Assembly calling for an immediate ceasefire. It should come from both sides. Hamas continues to indiscriminately fire at civilian targets in Israel. This is a war crime. Hamas has threatened to execute the remaining 137 Israeli hostages. This is a war crime and must be condemned. However, the Israelis are now on day 47 of their ground campaign in Gaza. In that time, they have killed almost 20,000 civilians, including more than 10,000 children. That is 150 children every da…

Several weeks ago, I had a Commencement matter about the Snunu family - a Syrian woman, Nouralhuda, and her three children, Ahmet, Mohamed and Rital. Rital is a little girl; she is only three years old. They have been detained in Kuala Lumpur International Airport since May in a small room with a hole in the ground for toileting. The temperature is over 30°C with massive humidity. They are under threat of deportation to Damascus, where they will face execution. There is no doubt about that. Nouralhuda's brothers an…

On a point of order, a Chathaoirligh.

I apologise for this. I was in my office and I heard a contribution on the floor that identified a family from Bangladesh and the small town in which they are now living.

It is a small village. I think that exposes them to hostile scrutiny and possibly worse. We should have a discussion and a healthy debate about immigration and the challenges we have with housing and accommodation. We should absolutely have a debate, but it is wrong and unethical to highlight one particular family in this way given the volatile scenes we have seen recently.

I am very upset by it and I would be terrified that that family and their children will be exposed to hostile scrutiny or possibly worse. I am asking the Cathaoirleach whether we have any scope to remove that from the record.

It is no disrespect to the speaker whatsoever.

I thank the Minister for coming in. I hope I have enough time to say what I want to say. The most important people in all this are the victims of the stabbings last Thursday. I preface anything I am going to say with that. I am not looking for anybody's resignation or sacking. What we need now is solidarity and a bit of unity in this House, but in order to do that, we have to face the facts of life. I was downstairs in committee room 4, where the Commissioner of An Garda Síochána was being questioned by the Joint C…

I echo the expressions of sympathy to the Honan family on the loss of Tras Honan. I also echo Senator Dooley’s comments about Dublin city. As a proud Dubliner, I am dismayed to see the city descend into anarchy as it did. I wrote an article in TheJournal.ie on 21 October in which I predicted precisely this set of circumstances. I think a Rubicon has been passed in that members of An Garda Síochána were targeted. That is a new phenomenon. Rioting has happened in our city centre but the deliberate targeting of An Gar…

I do not think she is for turning on it but can we have a debate on just ratifying the protocol?

I thank the Leader.

Hear, hear.

I commend the work Senator McDowell has done on this issue. As a newcomer to these Houses, I was shocked to learn that the library in its current form was to be dispensed with. I have always had access to a library as an academic. What is a library? A library is the most powerful engine for arriving at the truth, with data, evidence, facts and nuance. As parliamentarians, we are synthesisers of culture, the economy and public policy. To do that without an evidence base is to operate blindly. In the history of the R…

I remind the House of the situation that confronts hundreds of disabled children who are still languishing on waiting lists for complex spinal surgery in Temple Street and Crumlin hospitals. To add to this injury, there is the assertion that they will not be referred abroad for treatment. We rightly raised the issue of the children who are suffering in Gaza, thousands of whom are dying, but there are children in this country who are being left to languish and are deteriorating. Some of them have become permanently …

I thank the Minister of State for coming in. I want to be as quick as I can. I am asking that the Department and the Minister for Justice adopt an urgent, pragmatic, family-centred approach to visa applications to reunite the relatives of Irish families, particularly in the context of the increase in global conflict. We have an increasing global diaspora of Irish citizens and so this is going to be a more frequently occurring situation. We saw desperate attempts to get Irish citizens out of Kabul and desperate atte…

I appreciate the Minister of State giving me that response. I am heartened to hear he has spoken to officials in the Department. It is 30°C in Kuala Lumpur today, there is 83% humidity and those children are barefoot in a mosquito-infested cell. The Malaysian authorities have told me they are imminent in their desire to deport them to Damascus. We do not need an aircraft. We do not need to borrow an aircraft from another State to save these family members of an Irish family. All we need is a bit of ink on a piece o…

I echo Senator Dooley's comments about the children who are suffering in Gaza at the moment. We have information from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, from Human Rights Watch and from Amnesty International. The eyes and ears of the world are in Gaza witnessing and uploading in real time pictures of the unfolding catastrophe there. We know that every five and ten minutes at least one child and one woman is killed. Since we convened 20 minutes ago, two children like Emily have lost their lives. I sh…