The immediate medical evacuation of sick children from Gaza to Ireland is a “matter of life and death”, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has said.
Ms McDonald has called on the Government to fly the next group of seriously ill children out of the war zone without delay.
The State has agreed to help up to 30 children to leave Gaza. So far, 12 children have been brought to the Republic, in two separate missions.
Ms McDonald raised the issue in the Dáil on Wednesday after The Irish Times reported that at least eight seriously ill children were selected for medical evacuation from Gaza to the Republic in June, but they are not expected to be flown out of the Middle East until September.
A memo will be brought to the Government to clarify that the children’s siblings can also be evacuated along with the paediatric patients and their carers. Three people involved in the evacuation project had confirmed that they were advised that concerns over visas for the children’s siblings had stalled the evacuation mission.
Ms McDonald told the Dáil there was “every chance” that these children will be killed while they wait for medical evacuation. She called on the Government to add Jordan as another approved evacuation route. So far, all of the children brought to the State have come via Egypt.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that there is “no delay” to the evacuation mission, and the next group of children could be flown to Ireland before the memo is brought to Government.
Ms McDonald also wrote to Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill and Tánaiste Simon Harris on Wednesday to ask that the evacuation be expedited.
“Your proposed time-frame of autumn will be too late for some or all these children. It is a matter of life and death which demands immediate intervention,” she said.
“It is vital that you take the necessary action within your department as Minister for Health to expedite the arrival of the next group of 18 children. Not to do so represents gross negligence, and I implore you to act without further delay.”
Ms McDonald said Ms Caroll MacNeill had told her she is bringing the memo to Cabinet to seek Government approval “for what she called a more humanitarian approach to the evacuations”, with the next group ready to be welcomed in autumn.
Ms McDonald added that Mr Harris told her the memo to Cabinet was a “necessity”.
Mr Martin insisted that while there are “huge logistical issues” in getting children out of Gaza, there had been “no delays in the processing of Irish entry visas”.
He accused Ms McDonald of trying to “all the time seek to sow doubt in terms of the bona fides of Government on a fundamental humanitarian question”.
He asked: “Why would you think we were trying to delay children getting out of Gaza?” He insisted that that was not on his or the Government’s agenda.
Ms McDonald said, however, the “vital evacuation of the remaining 18 children has been stopped due to bureaucratic wrangling within Government departments over visas”.
She added: “At least eight children were identified by the World Health Organization and the HSE for urgent medical evacuation in early June, and a month on, they’re still waiting.”
She said “their medical assessments are complete. The doctors are ready. The hospitals are ready to receive and treat these children, but Government is stalling.
“Time is of the essence here.”
The Taoiseach insisted: “There is no delay. Nothing has been stopped. There is no bureaucratic wrangling. This is not subject to any Government memo.”
He said a memo would emerge which would regularise what has been happening already and “will in many respects, adopt an even more generous response in terms of the numbers of family members who can come, or siblings of the injured child”.
