Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am operating on the assumption that The Irish Timeswhich reported on the case is not playing silly buggers and that there is not some untold part of the story that would cast a reasonable light on the entire episode. If what The Irish Timeshas told us is true, we need to ask whether Garda immigration officers are acting in an unnecessarily hostile fashion when people who have a perfect right to do so try to come into the State. If they are, what does it say about what we are becoming as a country? I ask this in the light of the Government's disappointing response to the Private Members' Bill last evening on the issue of family reunification. I did not like the bad tempered nature of some of the exchanges on which I listened in. I do not think all of the comments made were necessary. Some of the comments directed at the Minister were overly personalised and needlessly tribal in their approach.