Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I wish to highlight a connected matter that has not yet been raised. I thank the Social Democrats for tabling the motion. I will take the example of a schoolteacher from Pakistan who teaches in Our Lady of Lourdes National School in Goldenbridge, Dublin 8. It is a DEIS school. Members may be familiar with it. The teacher in question came from Pakistan on a 1G graduate visa, trained here as a special needs teacher and started working in Goldenbridge last January. Her visa is now under application for renewal but there are two different systems in play. One is that the Department of Education told the school it had to advertise the job in a certain manner, and it did so, and Zabaria Peter, the woman in question, got the job. The Department of Justice states the school has to advertise it in a different way, but the Departments will not speak to one another. They do not communicate. I find this in every aspect of this Government. Two sides of the same coin do not deal with one another. This woman is being put out of Goldenbridge school. She is to lose her job having been educated but, more important, the kids are going to lose her. The special needs kids in the school love her, as do their parents and the community. She is doing a brilliant job.

This brings me to another issue, which is the messed up attitude to immigration in this country. There is currently a big row going on about immigration in all corners of the country. Let us remember, however, that for all the hysteria in respect of refugees, every single one of them comes with a pair of hands, a brain and a hungry belly. That means they can contribute to this society, as Zabaria is doing, rather than being seen as a burden on it. I visited a refugee camp in Greece during the Syrian war. Most of the adults I met there were highly trained, educated and skilled people who wanted to work in the system - as maths teachers, engineers, builders, medics and all sorts of other things. It is about time we had that conversation in this country, as well as the whole conversation in respect of housing. Those issues are linked. We cannot keep looking at people as though they are a burden or a problem. Everybody has something to contribute to society. The person some people think they hate today could be the bus driver, home builder, schoolteacher or hospital nurse or doctor of tomorrow. I again appeal for the Department of Education to speak to the Department of Justice, which has responsibility for immigration, regarding this woman at Goldenbridge school. It should do the kids and the community a favour and keep her in the job she loves and wants to be in.

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