Many people have described the denial of visas for those 33 children from Palestine as "cruel". That is a fitting word. These are children who have been learning to play GAA for the past year. They have been looking forward to this trip, this escape from Israeli occupation and oppression. The organisation said it has done everything it can. It provided more documentation than ever before. It provided it in ample time. A week before these kids were supposed to land, they have had this hammer blow. I am not interested in a tit for tat on who said what or who did what but, surely to God, this can be resolved. We are talking about 33 Palestinian children. We are talking about children living under an occupation and living under oppression. These are kids who have had a hurley in their hands for the last wee while and want to come over here. There are more than 150 families ready to welcome them into their homes and hearts. Surely to God, we can resolve this. There is still time to resolve it. I ask the Tánaiste to move the machinery of government to make sure assistance is provided and all of the things are done to make sure those kids are able to travel here and enjoy our national games.

Hear, hear.

I do not doubt the good faith of the people in our country and in other countries who have been trying to make this trip happen. No one doubts that. No one doubts wanting to support children. Of course, we are not just talking about 33 children seeking to come to Ireland. We are also talking a number of adults, almost all of whom are not the parents of any of the children.

The parents are dead.

Please do not interrupt me on a sensitive issue. We have just discussed child protection. It is very important. Vetting is very important. We have strict rules on migration and who can come into our country. It has to be a rules-based system. I do not want to go too far into the application. I am sure everyone is engaging in good faith. There is certainly not an effort by the State to seek to block or be difficult here. I am engaging in good faith on this too. There are rules and processes. There is an appeals process available. I have no doubt that will be considered by some of the people I have heard speaking publicly on this today. I know this is an effort by people to do good. I do not doubt that. However, we have to uphold the integrity of our migration system as well.

On the same issue, if the roles were reversed and a GAA club in Greystones, Swords or anywhere else were trying to go somewhere and the mentors who were travelling with them were falling foul of this, we would be rightly asking questions and, indeed, be outraged. We know this is not a normal case either. There have been many political representations made on this. We also have something else coming down the tracks with the Lajee Center in Bethlehem sending dancers over who may be subject to the same situation. The Tánaiste has spoken about breaking down silos. We have limited methods and ways of showing solidarity with Palestinians at the moment. This is one of them. I ask the Tánaiste to take up this issue of the GAA children, as well any other groups that are coming down the track, to ensure every possible effort is being made to allow them to visit this country.

I genuinely take the good faith in which people are raising it. They are quite right to raise it. Many people have raised it and contacted us all about it. The Minister for justice has a specific and important job to do and that is to apply the laws of our land on visas, child protection and immigration. If he did not do that, I am sure he would be criticised in the other direction. We are granting and have granted visit visas for quite a number of people from Palestine. We are always looking for ways, as a people, to support and show solidarity. We also have to operate and respect the integrity of our system. I am quite confident the rules being applied here by Ireland are exactly the sort of rules we would expect any other country to be applying as well. There is an appeals process in place. I do not want to cut across the independence of that. The Minister has outlined clearly the reasons why his Department was not in a position currently to grant the visas. I am ad idem with him on that.

Many of us in this Chamber use sport as a form of escapism. For those 33 kids who we are talking about from the West Bank, this is a potential escape from hell, a living hell that has rained down on them for 20 months at the hands of the Israeli genocide. It gives them a sliver of hope in their darkest hour. At the last minute, the Government has shattered their dreams and tried to extinguish that hope by denying them entry to the State for a trip that has been meticulously planned. This morning and again now I have heard the Tánaiste defend this fiasco by talking about a rules-based system. GAA Palestine, however, is adamant that their paperwork is in order. The embassy in Tel Aviv has said it did not put any barriers in place. Of course, if this was a group of Israeli kids, they would enjoy visa-free travel here because the rules-based system has different rules for different groups. The entire nation wants the Government to resolve this.

That is wrong.

It is child protection. That is not correct.

It has until Monday to sort it out. What is the Government going to do to help these children get here and give them back that sliver of hope?

It must be exhausting speaking for the whole nation, but I also speak for people in this country, as does every Member of this House. We are not tearing up our rules-based migration system. If, God forbid, anything happened to any child from any part of this country who came in here unaccompanied by a parent, the Minister would be hauled in here and asked what he did and why he let it happen. Child protection matters. There is no short circuit; there is no quick-----

Everything is in order.

Sorry, there is no going around the back of the scrum. Do not dare do Israel versus Palestine. This is child protection. We have a visa system. We have a rules-based system. The Deputy might want to have a different approach to migration. This Government has rules and those rules will be followed in relation to migration.