Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fail)

Yes I am, but let us not get particular about it. I am torn having listened to a Nigerian woman on "Morning Ireland" who said quite plainly that she came here to have her baby. She said she would get good maternity services here and wanted to give her child a good start in life. I asked myself what was wrong with that. She was speaking the truth, as any mother would, about wishing to give her child a good place in life and she figured that Ireland would be that place. The resonance of that interview has remained with me since hearing it.

I wish to pick up a point made by Senator Tuffy. I did not know that she had been born in the United Kingdom or that her parents returned to and settled satisfactorily back in Ireland. People state that the Irish went hither and thither, far and wide, trasna na dtonnta, but they did not always receive a welcome. One remembers the signs saying "No Irish need apply", which were displayed in the lodging rooms of New York, Chicago and other cities. Many early emigrants from Ireland to Australia travelled in prison ships and were treated as felons when they got there. Senator Tuffy is correct on that point but when we use those examples they still involve small numbers of people going to huge countries. Small numbers of Irish people set forth on dangerous waters, literally and metaphorically, and found landfall, happily in many cases, among very big populations. The comparison is valid in philosophical terms but not in numerical terms.

I have wrestled with this quite a bit because history is my topic and our history from 1850 onwards is full of incidents like this. However, my logical side suggests we should look at the numbers of Irish people as a percentage of the population in the country of arrival.

Whether it is true or not, we have a reputation for generosity and for welcoming people with open arms. Are we seeking to diminish that reputation with this measure? No, we are correct to have misgivings and to put those misgivings into legislation, but I wish we had more time. We should have more debate on this here, in the Dáil and on television and radio. Perhaps the Minister feels it is better to bundle these matters together but I wish there had been time for a more logical and comprehensive debate.

People write to the newspapers and say Irish people were made welcome in New York, Chicago and Sydney, but they do not point out the ratio. That issue would come up if there were a series of debates on this in Trinity or UCD. We are not debating something that is going to end; we are on a journey towards multiculturalism, though we have not embraced it yet. Some people are embracing it reluctantly, while others are embracing it with open arms.

Athlone was one of the first towns to get huge numbers of these people and I welcome them to my home. They visit me regularly to discuss matters and I regularly go to see them in the field in which they are housed in 400 mobile homes. They are cheerful and adaptable and there is ne'er a word of discord in Athlone about this, or very little at any rate.

We are on this journey towards multiculturalism and this is a diversion along the way, a short sharp shock on the road. It would have been better if we had had more time to debate this matter in philosophical, numerical, social, educational and cultural terms, which would have been better than the brevity of our present approach. Having said that, the Minister is on the television and radio whenever I watch or listen, telling his tale.