Yesterday evening, we saw very relieved faces in Dublin Airport and heard from people who had just got off an evacuation flight from Dubai. We heard how incredibly stressful and difficult it has been for people who have been trapped in the region over the last few days. The people in the region have now been told by the Irish Government that they are going to have to pay €800 per seat for an evacuation flight. This is ridiculous. It is scandalous. It stinks of a shakedown rather than any well thought-out evacuation plan. The Department is sending people a PayPal link, as if to say, "Clink this link, pay the money and out you go." While I recognise the Department has said children will not be included, plenty of families have adult children. A family of four could have to spend €3,200 to get out of a war zone. It is so incredibly cruel. It is incredibly out of touch. I cannot fathom how this was approved at any level in the Department. There are Irish citizens who are in a war zone and they need to be evacuated. They should not be asked to pay upfront costs. What if people do not have that money? Do they just stay there for the foreseeable future?

The Government has explicitly said it is targeting people who are in transit, first and foremost, as opposed to people who are residents. These people have already paid for expensive flights. Perhaps they were travelling somewhere in south-east Asia. They have already paid multiple thousands of pounds to go on that trip and now they are stuck. How will they have the money? Anyone who travelled during Covid and had to get home will know that airlines are not forthcoming when it comes to reimbursements. What kind of humanitarian response is this when our own citizens have to pay upfront to get out? To try to soften the news, the Minister stated that free bus services would be provided. So generous.

The Minister must review this urgently and ensure that all citizens are evacuated without having to pay upfront costs. Any repayment should be on a case-by-case basis but, critically, it should be done when the citizens are out of the war zone, not when they are in it.

On a similar vein, I have spoken to Irish citizens in Qatar. They received one email on Monday; that is it. The only communication was one email on Monday. I spoke to one person who used his own initiative. Off his own bat, he contacted EU member states' embassies in Qatar and the Austrians got him on a bus to Riyadh. He organised that himself, not through the Department. Why are our citizens having to take their own initiative to do this? Why is the Department not providing consular advice? Why are people in Qatar receiving one email on Monday and nothing else?

I was on the radio earlier. I heard other people talk about citizens in Qatar who have received one email. It is a total shambles. It is ridiculous. I cannot fathom that we are in this situation. We have EU partners. Why are we not working with them? Where are the evacuation plans? It should be across all of the countries in the region where people are vulnerable. It is utterly tone deaf how the Government has handled this situation. It beggars belief. I am calling on the House to ask the Minister to review what is being done urgently.