Mary Henry (Independent)

I support Senator Brian Hayes and Senator Ó Murchú in their call for a debate on the rationale or lack of regarding the issuing of visitor visas. Recently a member of the Nigerian Government could not visit Ireland for the occasion of his son's conferral at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. A senior official from the EU's Danube Waterway project was refused a visitor visa, presumably because he is Romanian, to attend the marriage of his son, who is employed in an important role in the Irish health service, to an Irish citizen. A retired Russian doctor whose daughter is married to an Irish citizen and who has been employed in our universities for the past 12 years was also refused a visitor's visa. The list goes on and it is shameful.