Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

I confirm that is accurate. I thank all Senators for their eloquent and learned contributions to this important debate. There is a fair degree of consensus on the matter. Senator Dardis summed it up well. As I stated in my initial response, a person's health status has been rarely used to refuse someone permission to land. As Senator Henry said, it will make little difference in practice. However, it is necessary in principle when drafting legislation. As regards the point that because it comes up little in practice, it is of little value, to say that something is of little value is different from saying something is of no value. There is value to it and it is necessary in principle.

Senator Dardis and the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, explained the background to this issue. I concede that what we are doing is introducing emergency legislation to deal with an immediate problem. As a result of the amendments we have accepted, we are putting in place the law as it was understood to be up to 22 January when the High Court made its ruling. As the Minister explained to both Houses, we are doing that on a temporary basis. We are looking at developing a more coherent, forward thinking and comprehensive immigration policy. Work on that legislation is proceeding in the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. Unfortunately, we have had to divert people's time, energy and resources to put this emergency legislation in place. That is regrettable because some of those people will put the more advanced legislation in place.

I accept Senator Henry's point about syphilis, SARS and other communicable diseases. It is unlikely that an immigration officer would be able to conclude that someone coming in through the port of Dún Laoghaire, who is suffering from syphilis, had that disease.