Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Judge Egbert Myjer, who recently retired from the European Court of Human Rights and is in the Visitors' Gallery. Judge Myjer is here to attend an important conference on family reunification, organised by the Immigrant Council of Ireland. This is a major issue in terms of the integration of our new communities in this country. I pay tribute to him on his wonderful work at the European Court of Human Rights during the past eight years. I commend him for his commitment to continue on a voluntary basis to promote the importance of human rights and human dignity. I thank him for attending the conference on family reunification which is extremely important.

We must embrace our new communities and facilitate families and loved ones, including parents and children, of those communities to integrate into our society, thus enriching it. I believe passionately that these new communities of the past 20 to 30 years have enhanced our society. We must be progressive in terms of what we do to embrace them, make them feel welcome and facilitate their playing a meaningful and productive role in our society at every level.