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Jailed teenager Ibrahim Halawa should be at home doing his Leaving Cert with his friends, Leo Varadkar has said.

But the Health Minister added it wouldn’t be right for our Government to interfere with the Egyptian judicial process.

Mr Varadkar was speaking after it revealed the Dublin 19-year-old has gone on hunger strike. He has been caged since August 2013 for allegedly taking part in a Muslim Brotherhood protest.

His family have begged our politicians to intervene after his trial was postponed for the seventh time earlier this month. Despite the backlash, Mr Varadkar has claimed the Government is doing all it can and urged his family to persuade Ibrahim to end his strike.

The Fine Gael minister said: “He is an Irish citizen, he is 19 years old, he shouldn’t be in jail, he should be at home doing his Leaving Cert.” But Mr Varadkar stressed he feels it wouldn’t be acceptable for the Government to intervene at this stage.

He added: “There are cases here at the moment involving German citizens and British citizens and what would happen if Angela Merkel or David Cameron rang up Enda Kenny asking for a court case to be stopped?

“It can’t be allowed, you can’t just interfere in another country’s process.”

He also rubbished claims that the Government are going easy on the Egyptian authorities.

Mr Varadkar insisted: “There are about 2,000 consular cases involving Irish citizens in trouble abroad and this is the one getting the most attention.”

Speaking on RTE’s The Week In Politics, Fianna Fail’s Robert Troy hit back, saying it is the Government’s duty to get Ibrahim home as soon as possible.

He added: “The Taoiseach needs to get involved, why are we waiting two years for a trial? There needs to be a trial.”