Eileen Flynn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming to the House. She is very welcome. In 2015, I worked with the Migrant Rights Council of Ireland, MRCI, for three months. To say it was the best three months' work experience of my life is an understatement. I got to meet the most powerful young people in the world. I do not mean that in a patronising way. I hate it when people tell me I am a brilliant young Traveller woman. The young people I met were young, paperless and powerful.That is exactly what they were back then and still are today. It was a brilliant experience. Many of them became my friends. Those young people grew up in an Ireland where they did not know when there would be a knock on the door to tell them they had to get out of the country. I remember doing a workshop with a few of them where they put paper over their faces so that they could not be identified for who they are. They had to hide their identity. It opened my eyes to the inequalities in Ireland, especially the inequalities that I would not like to see for my daughter, Billie, or other young people.

There are a few points I wish to make, as well as reflecting on the issues raised by other Senators. The MRCI estimates that there are between 2,000 and 3,000 undocumented young people living in Ireland. I understand that the young people with whom I worked in 2015 are now documented, but one of them told me this morning that she will never get back her youth and childhood which she spent living in fear because she did not have papers. She still works on the campaign seeking justice for the undocumented young people. To me, that is powerful. I do not wish to go off the point.

Under the Act governing citizenship, the Oireachtas has the power to legislate for children born here to have rights from birth and to be citizens of Ireland. Last February, The Irish Timesreported on the case of a ten-year-old child who was faced with deportation. A 14-year-old teenager from Galway faced a deportation order, as did another child of 12 years of age. These are young people who play. We are all big GAA fans here in the Oireachtas. I know I am; I grew up in a GAA house. These are young people who play for their local football teams and speak the Irish language. We do not have to justify that they are Irish or say they have better Irish than other people do or that they do certain things better than we do. These young people are an equal part of our society.

The Ireland of 2004 is a far cry from the Ireland of 2020. Migration is a part of human activity. We need to make sure that families who move here or children who are born here are safe and treated with dignity and respect.