Mr. Ted Neville:

I do not see how the Deputy could possibly object to the words "Asia" or "sub-Saharan Africa"; they are geographical, descriptive terms. We would have no geography taught in our schools if those terms were banned or deemed to be abusive or likely to lead to abuse. That is not a terribly logical point. A situation may arise in any jurisdiction where there is not a contrarian opinion expressed in parliament through elected representatives which seeks to give some representation to the concerns of populations within that country as to what is happening all around them. The single greatest change that has happened in Ireland since I was born in 1957 is that 20% of people now living in the South were not born here. That is the real figure to consider and it is quite astounding. It was never the policy or platform at any party's Ard-Fheis or annual conference, or whatever they are called, to announce, "Hey, great idea - we are going to change the demographic of Ireland. We are going to, by one means or another, allow a 20% foreign population to live here."

Meanwhile, 50,000 young Irish people will leave annually simply to acquire a job, which is what is happening. In a short period, Ireland will have a population not entirely dissimilar to that of Russia post the Second World War, with a whole generation of football players and soccer players, young apprentices and skilled people who are not here but in Australia, America and Canada. I do not think it is a particularly mature situation for a country to turn a blind eye to that once those people have gone on the plane and forget about them. One has to place hard facts. This country has 350,000 unemployed people, yet it continues to import a workforce from other countries, while our own people are emigrating and while our own people are unemployed and unable to find gainful employment or, perhaps, are being forced to work at rates which have been artificially driven down by the influx of people who are quite happy to work for very much less in pay. That is the situation that has not been represented in our parliament. It then falls to a few people like us who are of a contrarian opinion to point this out, and some people may not like the contrarian opinion.

May I draw one analogy very briefly? Great plaudits are being given to and interest expressed in the banking inquiry about people who did offer a contrarian opinion. I am just making a point of principle, not an exact comparison. It is now thought that it would have been a good idea, perhaps, if we had listened to those contrarian opinions, whether they were liked or not at the time. All I can say to the Deputy and the committee is that it would not, perhaps, be an undue indulgence for it to consider our contrarian opinion. It has a basis, and as the Deputy who has left has kindly remarked, it is the position held by the majority of Irish people as expressed in various opinion polls.