Madam, - Further to Kevin Myers's long and personally abusive column of November 15th, an attack which in my case is not new, I would like to place on record my belief that there is indeed a need for rational and serious debate on immigration and the issues that it has thrown up by way of discussion and reaction in Ireland.
The pursuit of the truth in this area surely requires drawing a distinction between individual incidents and the general disposition of minorities. It would surely also require a care in language such as would not lead to any misconstruction.
It is up to your readers to decide whether the use by Mr Myers of such terms as "a skinhead thug called Ahmed" and "Sean the suicide bomber" are contributions to a rational and serious debate, or how otherwise they may be construed.
I would also state for the record that I have participated in many discussions on these issues and have not found it necessary to use the term "racist" for intellectual opponents in such discourse. - Yours, etc,
MICHAEL D. HIGGINS, Dáil Éireann, Dublin 2.