Paul Murphy: Challenges Visa Denials for Palestinian Children

It is very simple. The Department of Justice has refused to give the visas needed for children from Palestine to come here and play hurling. That can now still be changed. It requires a government decision to say we are going to grant the visas. It is the very, very least that we can do. I really urge the government to act at this late stage. We know that as well as the GAA players being denied entry, we know there have been real issues in terms of medical evacuation of children, Palestinian children. And over the weekend I learned that around 20 Palestinian students have applied for visas looking to attend college from September in Ireland and only two of them have now been approved. There really looks to be a pattern here because you contrast it with any Israeli citizen can travel visa-free to Ireland for up to 90 days. An Israeli child could have travelled to Ireland, could play GAA with no trouble. Why are we not doing everything we can to allow these people? Let them play, let them study, let them access medical treatment in Ireland. I am perplexed about this. Deputy Paul Murphy raised this as well. I am slightly worried that there is a campaign on the way as well to try and blame the government. To create this narrative that the government is anti-Palestinian or not facilitating Palestinians coming to Ireland. The bottom line is 700 visas have been granted to Palestinian nationals since the outbreak of the war. 700. There is no delay in terms of medical evacuations whatsoever. And a false narrative has developed in terms of medical evacuation of children from Palestine. I do not know where that is coming from. Why would people even want to create that false narrative? No, it is not. To undermine the government. The doctor should contact the minister. We work with the WHO. Some doctors want to do another route through Jordan. We can look at that. But let's do it properly, through the proper channels. These are serious matters. Children with serious injuries. We have to make sure parents are on board, that the family unification is there. And we have done that already with 12 and I think about 45 adults with those children already. And we are very clear that there will be family unification. So let's not just go in and say, oh, government is anti-this, government is anti-that. It is not. And in terms of the G.A. Palestine, again this has come out of left field, to be frank. Why wasn't there proper negotiations well in advance or engagement with government parties? Sorry, before any visas were applied for. I am dealing with it now, but it is an important point. This is a serious matter. You can't have a group forming in any locality and simply saying, ignore all your normal regulatory procedures for visa applications. That is not possible. You have to get the documentation right. We have to know who is coming in with the children. We have to know the passports are proper. None of that, a lot of that was open to question apparently according to the documentation that was submitted. I mean, birth certs, just hear me out please. For the children, additional documents must be verified. Including birth certs, letters of consent to establish the relationship between the child and the adult they are travelling with. Most of the children would not have been travelling with a parent. And then there are all sorts of issues about employment, other times to get a person to return to home. Those are all there as regulatory. Now I think, and then for some reason over the last four or five days, no appeal was entered at all. I am going to move on to the next book. The basic thing that should have happened, an appeal should have been entered. And second, today at one o'clock, it does not sound right to me that a appeal would come in in that manner, given that a week has passed since the original decision on war. I just find the whole thing somewhat perplexing. That is all I am simply saying. I do not know whether the G.A. Palestine is affiliated with the G.A. or not. Normally what would happen is a sporting organisation would come to the government today and say we want to organise X and Y. Well in advance. He is here now. But I do not know who is behind the whole thing. I do not trust in this. Definitely Morocco. We are not having anything at the minute. Well, sorry. I would ask your Taoiseach if you would not mind concluding on this question. But what is going on? I would just like this issue dealt with. So would I. So would I. But the way it is being dealt with this. I do not understand that you did not deal with this. I am sorry. I do not understand the way you are dealing with it. It seems to be more about the campaign than the children. I hate saying that. That is what it does. All right. We are going to conclude. I think it is wrong, Deputy. We are now moving to questions 12 to 17 inclusive. But should there is no notification that anyone is achieving to those? You just do not rock up to the Department of Justice on ad hoc and say, Minister come down here. He might not have even been in the building. Like all of this. But all of it suggests. Sorry. All of it suggests something not right. I am not saying anything wrong by the organisation. But the whole thing seems haphazardly organised is all I can say. It is strange how the whole thing is developed in this manner. Sorry. Can we have some order please? There is something wrong here. We are talking about children here. I think there should be a greater sense of organisation behind this. We are going to move to questions 12 to 17 inclusive. Apologies. Yeah. In terms of Tibet, it will be on the EU-China forum and format. And we always raise issues with China. China always responds, by the way, robustly. And never has any issue with the matter being raised. But we do not get a satisfactory response from our perspective. And I think in terms of the Dalai Lama and so forth, I could not agree with you more.