Irish Prisoners Abroad
Dail Éireann — 2026-10-01
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Richard Boyd Barrett (PBP), Dún Laoghaire

For a start, the Minister should just send observers. Frankly, I would like her to go further. The defendants are kept in glass cages. When we were there, security people were blocking us from just seeing through the glass. They cannot communicate properly with their legal team during the trial. They have to depend on interpretation, which means they cannot hear the actual proceedings. They are being treated as if they are terrorists when they are clearly not. The Oireachtas Members and MEPs had pens and paper physically taken off us, so we could not take notes in the court.
It is unbelievable. Not a single motion put forward by the defence is given by the judge. She just ignores everything the defence says. It is a complete show trial. Something needs to be done. What is being done to them is politically motivated. I am asking the Minister to stop conveying the impression that we are observing when we are not and to send observers to watch the trial. The Minister is signed up to European guidelines on human rights defenders, as is Germany, which recommends sending trial observers, yet we will not do it. I do not understand why we are not doing it. I fear it is something to do with not wanting to embarrass the German Government and that has to stop.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-10-01/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:01:00+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-10-01