Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

Yes, but I refer to people who are 18 years old and have been in Ireland for potentially 18 years, but certainly 12 or 13 years. They are not Irish citizens but have spent all their secondary school career in Ireland and are not entitled to a higher education grant. Aside from the injustice, the absurdity of it is difficult to understand. Can that be addressed in the Bill?

I have had experience of a particular group of immigrants who have come here as nurses to work in accident and emergency departments or as midwives to work in, say, the National Maternity Hospital and people who have come to work in information technology. These are valuable people and are core to building a knowledge economy and our public services but we are often losing them to America, Canada and Australia. We are losing these good, valuable people to countries that will treat them better. If we are serious about having a modern society, integration, a knowledge economy and building up our public services we must stop that immediately. We must turn Ireland into a country that welcomes people of talent and ability from all over the world and gives them fair treatment, not one that makes people jump through administrative hoops time after time. Fair play should be an Irish value but it is not practised.

I broadly welcome the Bill. I accept it largely carries over provisions that already exist in law. In some areas it tightens immigration law as it should. However, the opportunity to inject some fairness has been missed while procedures have been loosened in other areas. I have concerns about the civil liberties aspects of this Bill regarding identity cards and marriage restriction. I am also concerned about the general treatment of immigrants who have arrived in the country legally, worked in the country, paid their taxes, obeyed the law, and yet are treated like criminals. That should be changed, perhaps by amendment on Committee Stage.

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