There is an immediate need for the Government to intervene to end the delay in evacuating very sick and injured children from Gaza to Ireland for urgent medical treatment. Last year, as the Taoiseach knows, the Government agreed to evacuate 30 of these children. There were two successful evacuations of 12 children in December and May. However, the vital evacuation of the remaining 18 children has been stopped due to bureaucratic wrangling within Government Departments over visas. At least eight children were identified by the World Health Organization and the HSE for urgent medical evacuation in early June. A month on, they are still waiting. Their medical assessments are complete, the doctors are ready, the hospitals are ready to receive and treat these children, but the Government is stalling.

Time is of the essence here. It is a matter of life and death for these children. They survived a genocide being carried out before the eyes of the world. I have corresponded with both the Tánaiste and the Minister for Health to advocate for their immediate evacuation. The Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, tells me she is bringing a memo to Cabinet to seek Government approval for what she calls a more humanitarian approach to the evacuations and that she fully expects, in her words, to welcome the next group of children in the autumn. That is months away. That is an eternity away. The only humanitarian approach is to get these children out now. It is important the Government memo does not solely identify Egypt as the evacuation route for these children. The Rafah crossing is closed and there is no direct route from Gaza to Cairo. Countries such as Jordan must be included. As the Taoiseach knows, Jordan is already facilitating evacuations and has offered to help.

Every week, every day and every hour their evacuation out of Gaza is delayed puts these children's lives at increased risk. There is every chance that these children will be killed as they wait, while Government Departments push paper around, tick boxes and argue among themselves. That threat and likelihood is very real, very present and very immediate for these children. We know that children from an earlier group previously identified for medical evacuation from Gaza to Ireland have died while waiting to come here in the horror of Israel's genocide. Doctors in Ireland who are standing by to treat these children and are ready to save their lives are very worried for them. Dr. Morgan McMonagle, a trauma surgeon who has worked on humanitarian missions in Gaza, puts the reality for these children in very stark terms. He said that by autumn, there is a very good chance that Gaza simply will not exist at the rate things are going.

It is unacceptable that the Government puts bureaucratic wrangling over the lives of very sick, injured children. Tá mé ag fiafraí den Taoiseach a ladar a chur sa scéal agus a chinntiú go mbeidh na leanaí seo, atá tinn agus gortaithe, slánaithe ar an bpointe boise ó Gaza go hÉirinn don chúram leighis atá de dhíth orthu. The Government's proposed timeframe of autumn will be too late for some, or perhaps even all, of these children. This is a matter of life and death. They have been waiting since early June. It is vital that the Taoiseach, as Head of Government, intervene and expedite their arrival in Ireland with no further delay. I ask him to do this with urgency.

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. One of the appalling features of the war on Gaza has been the indiscriminate slaughter of innocent children. The serial killing of children as a result of indiscriminate bombing, attacks and shootings has shocked the world. The scale of injuries suffered by so many children is truly appalling.

As a country, we have a strong tradition of providing humanitarian assistance. In September last year, following an appeal from the World Health Organization, the Government approved our participation in an initiative to evacuate a number of sick children from Gaza for treatment and care in Ireland. Four flights were agreed. Two have been successfully carried out. Approximately 12 children in total have arrived safely so far to receive medical treatment facilitated through those two evacuations, one in December last year and another in May this year. The children were accompanied by 12 mother-carers and 21 accompanying family members, so approximately 45 people, between adults and children, were facilitated. Ensuring the appropriate supports are in place to facilitate paediatric patients and their families is obviously key to the success of the overall operation. Planning is ongoing for the next medical evacuation operation.

There is no delay. Nothing has been stopped. There is no bureaucratic wrangling. This is not subject to any Government memo. A Government memo will emerge that will, in many respects, adopt an even more generous response in terms of the number of family members, or siblings of an injured child, who can come. The presentation of a memo is not material to the next flight. It will regularise what has been happening already. The original Government decision allowed for one child and one person but, in practice, we have actually been doing much more than that. The amendment in the next memo the Minister will bring will regularise all that. It is as simple as that. It is not stopping anything. No one is saying the next flight cannot happen. There are obviously huge logistical issues in getting children out of Gaza. The WHO, medevac and others are working with us in co-ordinating that. There have been no delays in the processing of Irish-entry visas in this regard. No current applications under this scheme are awaiting processing. The Minister is here and can confirm all of that.

I would respectfully say that before making allegations and assertions, we should get the facts right. As far as I am concerned, we will do everything we can to honour and fulfil what we have committed to, and do what we can to help children who desperately need treatment, care and wider supports because of the extraordinary trauma that has been visited on so many of them as a result of a horrific war that has no moral justification whatsoever any more in its assault on children. We want all the hostages released and an end to the war in Gaza. As a country, we will continue to provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza, the West Bank and the various agencies that support Palestinians in Jordan and Lebanon.

We work with Jordan on a continuing basis wherever the children are. There is no issue for us in terms of the particular border crossing, the mechanism or the route out of Gaza. That is not an issue for us at all.

No child is safe in Gaza. The Israeli genocide has mercilessly slaughtered children with abandon and the international community has watched on. The commitment made by this State and Government is a very modest one to take 30 children. They should be evacuated with all due haste. According to the medics who will treat these children, not alone have eight children been identified by the World Health Organization and the HSE as needing urgent care, but the assessments are complete, the doctors are ready and the hospitals are ready. If as the Taoiseach says, there is no bureaucratic wrangling and no blockage, why are they not here? That is my question. My challenge to the Taoiseach is that he must quickly ensure that the evacuations of the remaining children - eight of whom are ready to travel with full medical assessments complete, along with a further ten - happen without any further delay.

I thank the Deputy.

By the way, I have been in contact with the Tánaiste and he informed me that there was in fact a necessity-----

Time is up.

-----for a memo to Cabinet. I do not know what the communications are like within Government; I am not really interested in that. I am interested in the children-----

The Deputy's time is up.

-----and the need to evacuate them now for the treatment they need.

Is oth liom a rá nach bhfuil an Teachta McDonald cruinn leis an eolas atá aici agus leis an méid a dúirt sí ar maidin faoin gceist seo. Táim dearfach go mbeidh an Rialtas ag déanamh gach aon iarracht na leanaí seo a thabhairt isteach chomh tapa agus is féidir linn. Tá-----

Anois.

----- roinnt déanta againn ach tá níos mó le déanamh againn.

In respect of the Deputy's case, she has moved on now because the earlier assertions were wrong.

They are not wrong.

Sorry, Deputy, allow the answer.

They were fundamentally wrong. While there is no issue with raising questions and so on, the absolute motivation on the Deputy's side all the time seems to be to seek to sow doubt over the bona fides of-----

This is not about me; it is about the children in Gaza.

Please, Deputy McDonald-----

-----Government on a fundamental humanitarian question. That is not acceptable. From the very beginning of this war we did everything to get Irish citizens out of Gaza. Our embassies and our diplomats did everything possible to do it. Why does the Deputy think we would try to delay children coming out of Gaza? How dare you make that assertion.

That is not on my agenda and it is not on the Government's agenda. A Government memo is immaterial. We discussed this on Monday evening - the Tánaiste, the Taoiseach with the Minister for justice. There is no delay in this respect.