Sir, - With all the recent media coverage of the number of asylum-seekers entering Ireland and the inability of the Refugee Application Centre to cope, Irish people could be forgiven for thinking that we are facing an invasion. Moreover, the appeals by the Department of Justice for assistance from the Irish public in finding accommodation suggests that asylum-seekers have given rise to a housing shortage. Neither interpretation could be further from the truth.
Padraig O'Morain (Opinion, November 9th) rightly notes that the current "crisis" represents a failure of the Irish administrative and political systems to prepare for Ireland's new position as a destination for asylum-seekers and immigrants. Unfortunately, in the midst of this "crisis" perspective is in great danger of being lost. Yes, the number of asylum-seekers entering Ireland has significantly increased. However, what is significant is not the increased numbers; rather, it is the fact that the number of asylum applications in Ireland remained so low for so long.
Department of Justice officials have recently been fond of stating that new applications have reached a level of 1,000 a month, as if this level constituted an invasive threat to Irish society. However, even at this increased level, it would take approximately 12 years to equal the number of Irish people who went to live and work illegally in the US during the 1980s. This is not, as the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, would have it, an unfair comparison with a much larger economy. The recent ERSI report estimated that Ireland would require several hundred thousand immigrants over the coming years if economic growth was to be sustained.
As regards the housing shortage, little can be said except that a relatively small number of asylum-seekers have merely highlighted a problem long in the making and certainly predating their arrival. However, it is worrying to hear calls for Ireland to look after its own first. Had other countries adopted this approach with regard to Irish emigrants we would surely be faced with a real crisis. The manner in which the Department of Justice advertised in national newspapers for accommodation for homeless asylum-seekers is also cause for some concern. Firstly, one wonders why these advertisements were placed by the Department, which has no function in providing accommodation, and not by the relevant health boards, with whom this responsibility lies. Secondly, not placing similar advertisements on behalf of homeless Irish people risks increasing the resentment directed at asylum-seekers. Or perhaps increased resentment will facilitate forthcoming deportations.
Lastly, it is extremely hypocritical of Mr O'Donoghue to state that rejected asylum-seekers will be deported as illegal immigrants, as if this was a point of principle. In the 1980s Fianna Fail was at the vanguard in calling for an amnesty for Irish "illegals" in the US. And let us not forget the success of this campaign which saw some 48,000 residency permits granted to Irish people. From this perspective the Minister's current stance on illegal immigrants rings very hollow. - Yours, etc.,
Pat Guerin, National Federation of Campaigns Against Racism, Upper Camden Street, Dublin 2.