Irish TD detained twice in Egypt to return to Ireland today

Paul Murphy is reportedly on his way back to Ireland after he had been detained twice in Egypt.

The People Before Profit (PBP) TD for Dublin South West was detained earlier this week for his involvement in The Global March to Gaza.

Speaking on RTE's Morning Ireland, Mr Murphy said there are no other Irish citizens currently detained in Egypt but said he is "conscious" of the safety of those who have chosen to remain in the country.

Mr Murphy said it was not initially clear to him that he was being detained and that he spent a total of nine hours in a police station in Cairo.

"For the first three hours or so, it was just a slow, bureaucratic process. Things were taking a long time. I asked to leave and was told I couldn't. The whole time they had my passport, and it became clear that I was being detained, as unfortunately hundreds have been in Egypt, and many people deported. 

"Yesterday, in total, I was in the police station for nine hours," he added.

He went on to say that there would be no renewed attempt for the group to continue their march to Rafah and that there was much disappointment that they hadn't succeeded.

"Obviously, we are disappointed that we didn't get to Rafah. But, we have had probably the largest international people-powered coalition for Palestine in a very long time.

"This phase of the Global March to Gaza is over, there won't be a renewed attempt to get to Rafah. But then our focus turns to events, like Brussels next week, where the European Foreign Minister are scandalously going to be meeting with the Israeli foreign minister at a time when Israel has 20 months of genocide in Gaza, as well as starting a war with Iran," he added.

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Meanwhile, a post on the PBP TD's page has called for people to gather outside the Dáil this evening to "raise the roof" over the latest Rent Pressurized Zones decision that will "push even more people into homelessness.

The post on X reads,

"Paul's still making his way back to Ireland... but we need as many people as possible outside the Dáil at 6pm tonight to #RaiseTheRoof

"Don't let this landlord government gut RPZs, and push even more people into homelessness. The 150k vacant properties should be homes!"

Three housing proposals, including draft laws to extend rent controls nationwide, are to go to Cabinet on Tuesday.

The Government had flagged that emergency legislation would be brought forward this week to quickly introduce rent caps to a fifth of tenancies not already covered.

It is expected that the rent controls will be extended to around a dozen counties where they are not already in place by the summer.