Labhrás Ó Murchú (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. The importance of the Bill before us is that it focuses our minds in an urgent way on a humanitarian situation which exists in our jurisdiction currently. There is no greater measure of a nation's worth or compassion than the manner in which it deals with immigrants. No country has more experience of that than Ireland, because our people have travelled throughout the world. We have varying stories of how they were received in the countries they adopted. Currently, there are 50,000 people from Ireland in America who find themselves in an irregular situation. I am sure if we were debating that issue here, we would push out all the parameters possible to ensure those people are treated with the dignity to which they are entitled.

The same applies to dealing with the dignity of people who come through our shores often because of extreme deprivation which they are leaving behind. That is the Irish story all over again. I am pleased that Judge Bryan McMahon will chair the working group. I cannot think of anybody more suitable, an imminent and compassionate gentleman in every sense of the word. I believe this Bill can help him and his group in the work which they have to do.

If we look at this from a starting point, I do not say this in a derogatory or insulting sense, we are actually condemning people to a non-person status, in some cases for seven years. I genuinely do not think we want that on our national CV. It can be grossly misrepresented abroad whenever we are making a case about human rights in other jurisdictions. It is one thing not to have a job and to find oneself unemployed in which there is a lack of dignity. The idea that if work was available and one is not allowed to work is a unique deprivation and lack of human rights. Were it not for the fact that the Bill is before the House and that people such as Senator David Norris have raised the issue in the past - I have spoken on it on several occasions - the easy way out would have been to sideline it and forget the suffering of those people.

Let us not talk about the adults but the children who, through no fault of their own, find themselves in a non-person limbo and have no control over any possibilities that might exist to get out of that situation. I do not think anybody in public life or any citizen of Ireland want to see that continuing into the future. The Bill is quite balanced in many ways. It provides basic human rights whether employment, social welfare and so on but it does not open floodgates. It is evident that the draftsmanship is not just about a motion but it is about tackling a problem. We can think about the live register and wonder what might happen if some of the immigrants we are speaking about take up some jobs. I do not think that should be a consideration. If we use that type of yardstick in this case we only demean ourselves at the end of the day as a people. We must have a broadness of mind in doing what is fundamentally right against a background of history that our country, more than any other, has experienced as well. I do not know what the Minister of State's position will be but I agree with Senator Feargal Quinn that unless we are afraid of ourselves as legislators we will have plenty opportunity for debate on Committee Stage. If the worst should happen and we meet an insurmountable obstacle that we cannot overcome a focused debate, rather than depending on a minute or two on the Order of Business, will provide much food for thought for Judge Bryan McMahon and his working group and the Government.

The bottom line in all of this is that we are honest brokers internationally and are seen as peacemakers. We argue for human rights. We took the Palestinian plight on board this morning. We have so many issues here where we have shown ourselves to be strong advocates of human rights. This is something on our own doorstep which, under any circumstance, cannot be justified. We have legislation which we have the privilege to debate and if it flounders here, not only have we lost an opportunity but we have added salt to the wound on the inhumanity which is abroad at the moment.