David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Let me reiterate that I recognise the genuine approach of Members. I listened to Senator Higgins's contribution on the money message. I apologise if I was in any way misleading. I will definitely check it out and look at it in the future.

If Senators have suggestions about legislation or changes in the legislation that they would like to bring forward in this area, I request that they please contact me and we can arrange briefings for them before they go further, in case there are issues on which they need to be aware, as I firmly believe is in this Bill. I think there are traps that could actually make things worse for people. I am not trying to be political but having looked at the Bill that is my genuine opinion. I think we should let the family reunification humanitarian admission programme go forward and see how it works and keep the discretion and the lines of communication open.

As I said earlier, we live in a global world that is becoming increasingly violent. There are more than 65 million people displaced across the globe and the situation does not seem to be getting any better. There are intractable conflicts. Many of these conflicts are between people in these countries. There are very few conflicts that are between countries, but there is internal conflict and some of the consequences are absolutely awful. One could not comprehend the inhumanity that is happening in many states across the globe.

We are a very small country on the edge of Europe and we are doing the best we can. Thankfully we do not have any reaction to migration, as is happening in other countries. We can see in neighbouring states the negative reaction to migration and the impact it is having. I am concerned about the longer-term impact. We have to be very careful about that too, that it does not start up here. So far it has not happened, but I get messages accusing me of being a person who likes people who should not be in Ireland. I will not go into detail, but some of the messages are not repeatable. We must be careful that such tensions are not stoked up in this country.

I am genuine about the legislation. I invite Members to contact my Department if they have ideas or suggestions that they would like to progress. We will advise and support if we can, but obviously there is a process. When a Bill is passed by the Seanad it will go to the Dáil. It is possible that it can be improved in the Dáil, but I think we should allow the new family reunification humanitarian admission programme schemes time to bed down and see how they work. They will take time and resources and they are focused on the most vulnerable people.

On the previous occasion I was in the House, Members were highlighting the violent areas in the world where people are living on what I term "hell on earth".