Sir, - Surely even the "dogs in the street" have come to accept that the asylum process has been degraded into a purely criminal activity and it is right and proper for the Government to seek ways of limiting or stopping the abuse.
I see nothing that any reasonable person would object to in the way Australia handles illegal entrants. I recently read an article in the South African press which expressed the same concerns over the abuse of the asylum process in their country that many people express here. It shows how widespread the abuse has become.
There is a common thread running through the reactions to the Taoiseach's remarks: the numbers in Ireland are not significant and it's been identified that we need around 200,000 extra people to maintain our current economic expansion.
Firstly, for Ireland the numbers are significant. On a per capita basis Ireland is trying to handle now almost three times the backlog and almost four times the arrival rate of the UK. Secondly, we may need 200,000 extra workers over the next five years, but the make-up of these people must always be determined by Government policy, not by criminal activity.
Accusations of institutional racism do nothing to advance the debate. We are not fools, we see this accusation for what it is: an ill-defined phrase used in a blatant attempt to stifle discussion with a seemingly unanswerable charge. - Yours, etc.,
Richard Ashton, Malahide, Co Dublin.