Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I want to make another point on that. I agreed with the Minister on the issue of a non-citizen. The Minister did not deal with the place of the family in the Constitution and he might do so in his response. We will now have different categories of people within the family. That was never contemplated by the Constitution. That is an issue which needs to be spelled out. There could be two children in the same family, yet one could be a citizen and the other a non-citizen. That could easily happen. That is something that was never contemplated in terms of cherishing the children of the nation equally, as the founders of the State felt they would do in 1916. In fairness, I do not think later drafters of constitutional matters ever contemplated this either and that is why we need to look at this issue.

We need to deal with this issue by recognising there are huge differences of interpretation, opinion and consideration of it. As I said at the outset, I do not believe the Minister is racist and I will defend him in that regard. I do not believe he is motivated by racist motives nor do I believe that is an issue. I would say clearly and unambiguously that we should have orderly, regulated and controlled immigration laws. I will support them, and I have done so in places where it is unpopular to do so. It should not be left to racists or to people who want to leave the door open to everybody. That is not the way to do it.

I ask the Minister to do what his colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, did and hand this issue over to a commission which is unbiased and has no political connections, ask it for its view and let us be bound by it. He should send the argument to third party arbitration. There are no winners and no losers. Let us do that.