Senator Gerard P. Craughwell - speech from 5 Nov 2019

Senator Gerard Crockwell Go raibh aitha o lees Coi Hirlach Firstly I too would like to join with all of my colleagues and welcome Senator Hackett and her family to the Chamber I hope you enjoy your time here and that you're with a good group over there You should have actually spoken to us first, we would offered better terms and conditions but, you know, such is life But you're welcome here and your family is welcome as well Leader, over the weekend the Sunday World published an article about the repatriation of Lisa Smith and her daughter to this country and the fact that the Army Ranger Wing was involved I have to say Leader and I'm asking you now as the Leader of the House to make a statement on this today I believe that the release of this information during an operation which is not yet over was, to say the very least, poorly thought out I know the Defence Forces management are somewhat concerned about the fact that members of the Army Ranger Wing are out there at the moment doing whatever it is they do in order to bring this lady home Ms Smith will be brought home and the child who is allegedly hers will be brought with her as well We're not sure because we have had no insight into what testing has taken place to establish the child's true identity We also have a situation here where the child could claim three nationalities Syrian, UK or Irish And at the end of the day it does place us in a rather precarious position When Ms Smith returns to this country she will be a subject of interest for the Gardaí Shea Kona And that must be something that would concern every citizen of this country There's valuable information to be got with respect to how she became radicalised and how she finished up where she did I'm not going to prejudge what she may or may not have been involved in That's a matter for the Gardaí when she comes home But I do think, Leader, the Government must get to the bottom of who released this information It is unheard of for a military operation that is ongoing to finish up reported in the national media And to place the lives of people, possibly place the lives of people at risk On the other side, I have to commend the Defence Forces Who are always willing and ready to do whatever is asked of them by Government Finally, before I take my seat, I too want to join my colleagues on the passing of Gay Bourne I think all of us in this room can recall Gay Bourne from the time, certainly from the time I was in short pants right through to the time when I lost all my hair Gay Bourne influenced everything in our lives Some of his programmes were amusing and some of them were highly serious I wouldn't dream of naming names or mentioning people Of course He was a tremendous icon and he will be sorely missed Thank you very much Thank you, Senator