Sir, - The Tβnaiste, Ms Mary Harney, is constantly emphasising that Ireland needs thousands of workers to keep our economy booming. Young people from many countries are having a horrific experience when they respond to this invitation. They receive a blank "work-permit" application from a prospective employer. On that Government form there is a direction to go to their local Garda station to obtain verification of residence in Ireland.
The garda in the station then says: "No, we have no authority to stamp this. You must go to the Alien Office in Harcourt Street to have this done." And now, the joy of the Irish experience really begins.
The enthusiastic respondent to Mary Harney's invitation to work in Ireland will have to join a queue at 4 a.m., stretching down Harcourt Street to the Aliens Office. If lucky, said applicant may be admitted four or five hours later to have a simple document stamped. My friend from an Asian country had to stand - with many others - in cold and rain last Wednesday morning for five hours before being received.
Said friend had to pay taxi fare of £10 and lose a days wages to get service in Minister John O'Donoghue's Alien's Office. She was in the company of a huge number of people - not the unfortunate asylum-seekers nor refugees, but people who came to Ireland of the welcomes - as invited by Mary Harney - to keep our Celtic Tiger purring.
This is an inhuman and cruel way of treating applicants for work permits. The visitors and guests of our country are treated like animals. They line up on a cold street from 4 a.m. each morning, exposed to wind and rain. (Even animals are provided with shelter!) There are only three clerical officers to deal with the recurring great numbers of applicants.
May I ask John O'Donoghue and Mary Harney: "Why do you allow and sanction these visitors to Ireland to suffer this degrading and inhuman treatment? I shudder to think what it must be like in winter months. When I witnessed this scene recently I felt ashamed to be Irish. I felt angry that an Irish Taoiseach and Irish minister could stand over and sanction such cruelty. - Yours, etc.,
Brian J. Sayers, Lynch Heights, Killorglin, Co Kerry.