I again wish to raise the case of the young Irishman in an Egyptian jail. In today's edition of the Irish Independent the public affairs editor, Mr. Shane Phelan, reports that Ibrahim Halawa has been subject to electric shock torture in an Egyptian prison, according to a submission made by a leading human rights lawyer to politicians yesterday. It is important that this young man be released by the authorities in Egypt and brought back to Ireland. As Members know, his father, Sheikh Hussein Halawa, is the most senior Islamic cleric in Ireland. Ibrahim Halawa has been detained for almost two years. It is very serious that an Irish citizen is being treated in this manner. I know that the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Charles Flanagan, is doing his best, as is the ambassador, but their best is not good enough. The State-----

They cannot circumvent what happens in the Egyptian courts.

There is no law and order there. They are not treating this young man properly. Is electric shock treatment acceptable to you? Would you like to receive electric shock treatment in some jail?

Certainly not. I was talking about what the Senator was up against.

I ask Senator Leyden to speak through the Chair, please.

Is Senator Coghlan standing over the Egyptian system and the degrading torture of a young 19 year old Irishman through electric shock treatment? Is that the way we treat an Irishman 100 years after the Easter Rising?

The Senator knows that it is not.

Senator Leyden should not invite comments from the other side of the House. Does he have a question for the Leader?

I second the motion proposed by Senator Norris on lone parents.

To return to the case of Ibrahim Halawa, in the circumstances I have no hesitation in calling on the President, Mr. Michael D. Higgins, to intervene. He has a responsibility to Irish citizens and I do not think he can stand idly by and allow an Irish citizen to be treated in this manner. I call on him-----

The Senator should not mention the President's name in the House.

He is a politician and was elected by the people of Ireland.

He is not; he is above politics.

He should contact the President of Egypt to say he must release our citizen.

The Senator is completely out of order.

Unprecedented cases require unprecedented action, but no action has been taken and it is about time it was. We have a President in Áras an Uachtaráin who is a great human rights advocate, a man who has stood up for people's human rights.

The Senator is completely out of order.

I hope I am in order.

We talk about Seanad reform.

We all share the concern about the health and well-being of Ibrahim Halawa and want to see him returned to his family and back in Ireland to further his education. I have every confidence in the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, his officials and our consular staff who are doing everything possible to secure his release. In the past year and a half some 42 visits have been made to him in prison in Egypt.

I believe this issue will be resolved through diplomacy. I certainly believe that grandstanding such as we have seen here this morning is not helpful. I would appeal to everybody to work diplomatically and to support the efforts being made by our diplomatic staff to resolve this issue and get this young man home.

I want also to speak on behalf of the asthma suffers of this country, some 470,000 people who live with this condition on an ongoing basis. We have the fourth highest incidence of asthma in the world and 60% of sufferers in Ireland have uncontrolled asthma, meaning they are at risk of an asthma attack. One in every ten adults has asthma and one in every five children, which is a frightening statistic. A clinical programme for asthma was adopted in 2011 but, to date, it has gone largely unimplemented. I call on the Government to include the funding for the first phase of this programme in the 2016 budget. It is estimated it would cost some €2.5 million and the priority would be to spend this money in primary care, given the majority of people are treated for their asthma condition by their local GP. I would also like to see a free annual asthma review for each person with asthma. Another issue is that asthma sufferers are paying a very high cost for medication, which is an area that needs to be addressed. At some stage in the future, we should have a discussion with the Minister for Health in the House in regard to the rolling out of the clinical programme for asthma and its funding in the 2016 budget.