Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to raise this issue. However, I hesitate to even discuss it in the present atmosphere. I refer to the shock deportation from Castleblayney on Tuesday night last of Mrs. Nkechi Okolie and her three children, aged six, ten and 16, which has evoked strong feelings not only in the town, where they lived for up to five years, but throughout the entire community. The community where they lived and went to school is heart-broken and bitter over the fact that this family was allowed to integrate in the schools and churches for a number of years. The mother was not allowed to work and provide for her family, but she managed to work as a volunteer at Dóchas Monaghan, at the Camphill community centre and the First Castleblayney Presbyterian Church holiday club. In the words of the Reverend Nancy Cubitt, minister at the First Castleblayney Presbyterian Church, the church was very sad to lose one of its most committed and popular families. Absolutely everyone at the church signed a petition asking for the family to be returned to Castleblayney.

The members of this family won the hearts of everyone who had the privilege to meet them, whether at church, school or community level. Ike, the 16 year old son, attended Castleblayney College and according to the principal, Mr. Gerry Hand, he was an exceptional all-round student with his exemplary attendance and punctuality. His junior certificate results last September were exceptional. He achieved the title of student of the month at the school on more than one occasion. The principal said: "I cannot praise his general application to school, curriculum and extra-curricular activities highly enough." Yet Ike was deported without the opportunity to speak to his friends and while the local Garda treated the family generously, the inhumane manner of the deportation was despicable.

The head of Dóchas Monaghan spoke on local radio about the great voluntary work Mrs. Okolie was doing with the Dóchas group in Monaghan and also spoke on behalf of Camphill. I have a number of letters in my possession which are very sincere and generous in their support for the family. The main issue for most is that these people were allowed to stay here, integrate into society and be part of the community. As Reverend Nancy Cubitt said, these people were an asset to the country and are sorely missed in the church. They were already making a large contribution to the community and it would have been greater, had they been allowed to work. We want to see them back. There are many more suitable cases for deportation than these.

I am old enough and so is the Minister to be able to recall the times when my brother and many others had to leave this country. They went to England and North America. I have been in Canada on many occasions, in places where the Irish there have never returned to Ireland, although their roots are still here. Their families went out there during the Famine era or even 100 years before that. These people were allowed to take up employment. As regards immigrants who are in Ireland for a number of years, is there not some justification for an amnesty? We allow many other people into this country to work. We are actually looking for such people to work. I know of a number of immigrants at St. Patrick's College, Monaghan, who are sorely aggrieved at their situation. They do not want to be a liability and want to work. I realise there must be immigration laws but matters have tightened up considerably. Not nearly as many immigrants are coming in, for all sorts of reasons. However, at least those who have been here for a number of years and have integrated into society should be allowed, for God's sake, to remain so that the type of havoc this family has experienced is not replicated.

I have never seen this community so united. These people are not strays or weirdos, they are the genuine, ordinary people of Castleblayney. In the words of the Reverend Nancy Cubitt, absolutely everyone signed the petition. Not one person was against this dark coloured family being there. They had come to know and love them and wanted them to stay. This is a small Presbyterian Church — I am a member of the broader church in the county — and the moderator of the church in County Monaghan has sent a letter to the Minister asking him to reconsider the situation. We do not want an open door policy for crackpots, we want realism and an understanding of what our sons and daughters went through in the years gone by and to treat these people with Christian generosity.

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