Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Leader to invite the Minister for Justice and Equality to the House in the near future for a debate on deportations. I am particularly concerned about reports on the threatened deportation of a nine year old boy in Bray. He was born in Ireland and he has spent his entire life here. He is in fourth class in St. Cronan's national school in Bray but he faces imminent deportation to China. More than 30,000 people have signed a petition to argue against his deportation. A group of hundreds of Chinese parents in Ireland have asked the Minister not to deport this young boy on the basis that it would be wrong and that the Chinese educational system is so different from the Irish one. It would be difficult for a boy having been born in Ireland and lived all of his life here to be deported to China. It is particularly noteworthy that just last week it seems the Minister intervened in a case in his own constituency of Laois-Offaly to ensure another young boy was not deported to Nigeria. It is a sad day when campaigns against deportation seem to rely on the likelihood of having a Minister in the constituency. Having said that, the local Minister in Wicklow is appealing to the Minister for Justice and Equality against the deportation of young Eric Zhi Ying Xue in Bray.

The latest deportation should remind us of the referendum campaign that was run and supported by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil in 2004, which removed the right to birthright citizenship from our laws. I was very proud of the strong stance taken by my own party, the Labour Party, against that referendum.