Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this issue. As someone who, like Deputy McGuinness, has spent the past 20-odd years dealing with immigration issues, I believe and hope we have learned a lot but we still have much to learn. We should avoid trying to create a divisive debate that tries to throw the blame onto one sector or other in our society. That does not solve the problem. We need to try to be careful, supportive and constructive.

In the course of the past 20 years, I and everybody else in this House who has dealt with these cases would have had direct interaction with people who were physically and mentally tortured, and women and children who were traded and sexually, physically and mentally abused over long periods and who were in a pitiful situation. We have all had situations where women who were coming from that kind of situation were looking for somewhere else - a refuge - and we gave them refuge. Perhaps it was long, drawn-out and cumbersome or could have been faster and more efficient. Perhaps it could have been more in line with what was required by the people who were looking for help at the time. It was an attempt address the issue, however.

I compliment the numbers of people throughout the country, both individuals and groups, who came forward and offered help and assistance of a constructive nature and were able to take on local arguments where people had indicated reticence in terms of accommodating and dealing with refugees or immigrants. Not everybody in the country was as welcoming. The rule still applies. As a nation that has wandered across the face of the earth for the past couple of hundred years, we more than anybody else should be in a position to understand the situation the refugees have and will still come from.

We have heard criticism of people who are so-called economic immigrants. I do not see anything wrong with and cannot see why there would be any reticence or objection to people who are economic immigrants. We were economic immigrants. Both my parents were economic immigrants in years gone by. We, therefore, more than anybody else, should be in a better position to offer constructive assistance in this kind of situation. I hope this debate leads to more of that.

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