Seanad debates

Wednesday, 1 December 2004

Irish Nationality and Citizenship Bill 2004: Second Stage.

 

12:00 pm

Photo of David NorrisDavid Norris (Independent)

I welcome the Minister to the House and thank him for his informative disquisition in his speech. I learned a good deal from it and followed it with great interest. It was clear and logical. However, the speech left out salient areas and I wish to explore them.

The Minister was very interesting when he spoke about Garda statistics regarding racist attacks. I welcome what he said and I hope it reflects accurately the situation on the ground. Nevertheless, the perception of vulnerable people, and even of some who are not legally vulnerable, is different. I listened with great sadness to an articulate and distinguished Irish citizen, who is a doctor from Sri Lanka and is married to an Irish person. This person was extensively interviewed on Marian Finucane's radio programme and later on another programme. She made the point that since the referendum and the atmosphere generated by it she has felt so badly about the situation that she has returned to Sri Lanka. In addition to the Garda statistics, we must bear in mind that educated and articulate people have formed this perception.

Although I completely exonerate the Minister from any charge of racism, certain figures — principally outside the two Houses of the Oireachtas — are strongly in support of some of the changes in the Bill and have lobbied for them. I am thinking of groups like the anti-immigration platform, or whatever they call themselves. There is a context in which the Bill must be placed. For that reason, although I accept some of the logic of what the Minister says, I have real grounds for concern.

The Minister is right when he says many people want to come to Ireland. Why would they not? I think it is a wonderful accident of fate that I have the right to live in this country. It has been adjudged the best country on the planet in which to live. It is one of the wealthiest countries on earth. Why would people who are in awful conditions not want to come here? Of course, Ireland is a small country and we cannot solve the world's problems all on our own. In geopolitical terms, the world must move towards greater equality and justice so that people will be happy to stay at home. It must take a great deal of suffering to drive people out and we must be compassionate in understanding this.

The Minister spoke about the attraction of Ireland to non-nationals who make their way to our country "with plans to share in and contribute to our prosperity". I was glad to hear the Minister add to his prepared speech the words "and to our cultural diversity". This shows the humane element in the Minister's own make-up.

The Minister talks about people observing immigration requirements. That is fine, depending on what are those requirements. There has been a notable reluctance on the part of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform to spell out clearly and precisely what are the criteria and guidelines and how people who are placed in this anomalous position can effect this decently and legally. We need much greater transparency, clarity and fairness in dealing with people.

The Minister says our immigration policies have served us reasonably well. I am glad he included the word "reasonably". I do not think they have. I am not blaming the Minister but I remember the queues of people in the rain and all that misery and wretchedness. I know the Minister took that very much to heart and was not in support of it.

The Minister referred to work permits. While not directly relevant to this debate, there is a scandal here in that the work permits are in the sole possession and judgment of employers. Very often, these permits are used to militate against rights of people. There was a case involving two unfortunate people from Pakistan who were badly treated. They had concluded an agreement that they would be paid a certain amount of money and would have certain conditions, yet the employer simply said: "You can bugger off [if the House will excuse the expression] if you don't like it, because I hold your work permits." This is a regular feature so I ask the Minister to address it. He says these work permit policies are working. They are if one uses a kind of mathematical calculation and says there are more applications but underneath that there is concealed a nasty human problem.

I wish to raise the question of safe countries. Would the Minister consider Nigeria to be a safe country?

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