It is ironic, in the week when Ireland celebrates the life of an undocumented and socially-disruptive immigrant named Patrick, that the Taoiseach should float the idea of interning would-be refugees who reach our shores. It appears from reporters' accounts of his Australian visit that this is no flight of fancy or an idle musing, recorded in an unguarded moment. Twice offered the opportunity by reporters to withdraw the concept of mandatory detention, he declined to do so.
Very properly, the Irish representative of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), Mr Michael Lindenbauer, has refused to comment directly on what the Taoiseach has said, pending clarification. But he did make it clear that the UNHCR is opposed to the concept of detention. He did not comment on the Taoiseach's assertion that it is "well known" that the UNHCR believes the Irish system is "far too liberal anyway".
There is a time-honoured convention that when the President or Taoiseach is representing Ireland abroad, Irish media and politicians hold back or at least pull their punches in terms of criticism. Immediate responses to the Taoiseach's remarks have nonetheless been critical. The Taoiseach's brother, Dublin North West TD, Mr Noel Ahern, was moved to declare that detention for asylum seekers would be "against everything that Fianna Fail stands for". The Taoiseach - whether he intended it or not - has delivered a severe jolt to public thinking. Mr Ruairi Quinn said it was not the first time the Government had "misrepresented" the UN's position on Ireland's procedures for dealing with asylum-seekers. Mr John Bruton believes that Mr Ahern's declaration was quite intentional - a subtle attempt to whip up xenophobia to Fianna Fail's political advantage.
It is bizarre that the Taoiseach should have chosen Australia for this demarche. It would be difficult to find a country whose experience of immigration - and emigration - has been so different from our own. Proportionately, the scale of immigration to Ireland is a fraction of Australia's. Australia is a magnet for the afflicted peoples of virtually the entire Pacific region. There is no reason to doubt that its detention centres are run on a humane and civilised basis. But they are, effectively, prisons. There must be many more progressive models throughout the globe to which Ireland can turn - smaller countries, with perhaps a tradition of their own of sending people out to make new lives elsewhere.
It is disappointing, to say the least, at a time when the Irish economy is crying out for workers and for new skills, that Mr Ahern's thinking should focus on incarceration. It might have been thought that his emphasis would be on assimilation, training and education of those who come to Ireland and who are willing to make their contribution. Indeed, the Government Task Force on Skills Shortages is reported in this newspaper today as calling for a stepping up of immigration in order to meet future needs. And where better than Australia, with its large numbers of skilled Irish workers, for the Taoiseach to have made a plea for return immigration to Ireland?
An opportunity has been missed. A controversial and divisive proposal has been placed on the public agenda. If the Taoiseach's intentions are as they appear, we are on the way to disgracing ourselves again.