Gaza child evacuations
The Deputy asked why promised evacuations of seriously ill children from Gaza were delayed and how many remained. The Taoiseach said there were no visa delays, described the evacuations as logistically difficult, and said everything possible would be done to get the children out quickly.
I return to this State's commitment to evacuate seriously ill children from Gaza because we all want to know what is going on. It is nearly a year since the Government promised to evacuate 30 sick children from Gaza and since then, just 12 children have been evacuated. We now hear that petty bureaucratic concerns about visas are delaying the evacuation of other children. The Taoiseach has been clear today that visas are not the problem. What is the problem? What is the delay? Why, if paperwork is not the issue, have the remaining 18 children not been evacuated? Eight children were approved for treatment in the past month but their travel has been blocked or delayed. What is going on? When will these children be evacuated and why is there a delay?
Comment on this
As the Deputy heard earlier, there are no delays in issuing of visas and there is no wrangling going on. There have been about 45 in total, adults and children. The original WHO agreement was one on one but we did not observe that in many respects because there are complex issues involving families, siblings left behind and the need for carers. Logistically, evacuating children from Gaza is very difficult and much of it is not within our control. We work with the WHO and others. Rest assured everything that can be done to get those children-----