Sir, - Later this week Dail Eireann is to debate the growth of racism in Ireland. I'm sure there won't be a hint of racism in any of the contributions to the debate, nor would any such hint be tolerated.
Nevertheless there is more than a hint of racism in the current treatment of aslyum seekers and in the threat of extensive deportation that lies over them.
Before any of these powers are used I hope Dail Eireann will reflect on the powerful documentary broadcast by RTE last week on the experience of Jewish applicants for asylum here in the 1930s and 1940s . In my view the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, should make a formal apology to the Jewish community for Ireland's failure to offer refuge to Jews fleeing Nazi persecution and also specifically for the gross Jew-hating behaviour of Ireland's ambassador to Germany in the 1930s, Mr Bewley.
Ireland has rightly sought apologies for the Great Famine and more recently in respect of Bloody Sunday. The effective refusal of the Irish State to offer asylum to the victims of Hitler's racism, by a variety of bureaucratic mechanisms, should now be officially acknowledged and publicly atoned for.
The value of such an apology now is that it would offer a fitting mechanism to express a general determination to outlaw the kind of racist outbursts recently experienced both by asylum seekers and indeed many Irish people of mixed race born and brought up in Ireland.
The Refugee Act of 1996 received wide cross-party support when I introduced it in the Dail and Seanad . Ironically, the only criticism of the Act by then Fianna Fail spokesman on Justice, John O'Donoghue, was that it was not liberal enough.
What is happening now is that the collective will of the Dail expressed by the unanimous vote in favour of the Refugee Act is being put aside to pander to the politically motivated scare-mongering of a small number of deputies.
Confronting racism requires genuine moral leadership. Without this, racism breeds infectiously. The Taoiseach has the opportunity now and he should grasp it immediately. - Yours, etc.,
From Joan Burton
Old Cabra Road, Dublin 7.