Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Tom Kitt, to the House and thank the Labour Party for putting down this crucially important motion.

Senator Dooley said that it must not be forgotten where this problem began. However, we must have absolute clarity in our recollections. These emigrants were people from every street, town and county on this island who went across to England under various circumstances. Some did not have jobs in Ireland due to lack of education and had no choice but to leave. However, I recall when living near a courthouse that a month did not go by when a judge gave a defendant the choice of either going to jail or to England. When I hear the pious chantings of some politicians today on immigrants entering this country and fiddling us for a few shillings, it must be remembered that we wrote the script. We knew how it was done from the beginning. We sent the people we did not want across to England. They went over with no education, no prospects and criminal records with nowhere for them to go.

When they got there, they were met with open arms by those very successful Irish emigrants, many of whom are now giving evidence to tribunals. They were given the most difficult work — carrying hods with six or seven blocks up three section ladders that broke their health in no time. To make life easier for them, they were always paid in the pub on a Thursday evening. This was to ensure they could spend their money in the very pub that was probably owned by the same builder. To make life even easier, they were told not to worry about social welfare and tax. It would all be taken care nicely on the lump as the builder paid them in cash, with no tax to be declared so they could take home more. Of course, the emigrants grabbed at it. When I was in England as a student, we all considered those from the West Indies as the poor and uninformed who did the miserable jobs such as driving the Tube and clicking tickets on buses, getting paid half what we were.