Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I spent 25 years of my life teaching in Dún Laoghaire and a fair number of sub-Saharan Africans in particular would have come through our college in my time. Would Ms Buckley see any benefit in educating the indigenous Irish, for the want of a better description, on the ethos and standards that some of our migrant communities have? I am particularly mindful of the Nigerians and the work ethic and standards they demanded of their children to aspire to be the best they could. That was something to see. The common cry one hears from some of the lunatic brigade is that these people are coming to take our social welfare and housing and that we should house the Irish before we house anybody else but we forget that so many of us were migrants. I was one myself back in the 1960s and we forget what it was like to arrive in London and see signs stating, “No Irish, no dogs” and things like that. Could we do an advertising campaign or something like that to show the human side of the people the Department is dealing with every day. The Department works at the coal face, its staff meets these people in the most horrendous circumstances and they bring them in and give them everything the State can offer. The one thing we cannot give them in an official setting is the love and attention they probably require. I am particularly mindful of the young people who have arrived on their own and who have been trafficked all over the world. I think of that horrendous case in the UK with 39 people in the back of a truck and I think of the drowning migrants, including that little boy lying on the beach in Turkey. People have to realise the desperation these people come to our shores in. The way the world is going there will an awful lot more of it over the coming years as people move away from famine, drought and whatever else. I will not take any more of the Department’s time. It does a fantastic job and I could not criticise anything it does. The staff in the Department have worked in the most extremely difficult circumstances so I congratulate them and thank them for their efforts.