Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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I think it is important to be honest. If one were to follow the report of this debate on thejournal.ie, the majority of the comments would be in support of the two speakers. If we talk about asylum seekers and the direct provision system, the majority of comments on thejournal.iewill be opposed to the asylum seekers and supportive of those who would ask they be deported. We have a major issue in Ireland that we need to be honest about. The truth of it is that the two contributors today actually speak for a view that is widely held, privately, in Ireland today.

Here is my point. Ireland is the only country in the world that today has a population lower than it did in the early 1800s. A book was written in 1986 by a man called Raymond Crotty called Ireland in Crisis: A Study in Capitalist Colonial Undevelopment. The author identified that of all the children who had survived childhood from the foundation of the State, half had emigrated. Of course, we had the 1980s and emigration - I am a Donegal man so I know all about emigration. My father, grandfather and I had to emigrate, not as asylum seekers but for economic reasons.

Having stated those things - through the Chair but obviously directed to the contributors - I ask how, with that knowledge of our history of economic migrants across the world, can we say we will not accept asylum seekers in Ireland? How can we not have a position that would regularise those who have been living here in Ireland for long periods?

What I understand right now of policy is not that Ireland would open its door for all to come as has been the case for the Irish people through the ages, but that we would regularise those who have lived here for three or four years or more and allow them to continue their lives here and return to their families. You may have seen the testimony to this committee of a man from the Philippines, which was deeply moving. Indeed we are deeply moved for our Irish citizens who give similar testimony over in the United States. Leaving aside ideological perspectives, we are all decent human beings here. How can we as an Irish people with that history allow a situation where we would not regularise that or allow genuine asylum seekers to stay in this State?