The lobby in favour of allowing those seeking political asylum in Ireland to work pending decisions on their right to stay here has just failed to sway the Government. It took some smart footwork by the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, to avoid defeat on the issue as the Select Committee on Justice, Equality and Women's Rights discussed the Immigration Bill. Influential members of his own party urged him to change his mind. Regrettably, he refused. But those who support a change in the law may be heartened by the more sympathetic reception their message is receiving and should be encouraged to keep up the pressure.
Mr O'Donoghue rejected the proposal, saying it is necessary to consider the wider interests of the Irish people. It would be wrong, he argued, to extend the right to work to those whose legal status here has not been established - and until that is done, they have no legal status. In any case such a decision could act as a "pull factor", he said, to attract some among the hundreds of thousands of refugees elsewhere in the European Union to Ireland. It is quite a catalogue of arguments, which deserves searching and critical examination.
What evidence is there to show that the interests of the Irish people are served by maintaining the existing highly restrictive policy? As several TDs put it during the debate (one of them from Fianna Fail), creating a culture of forced welfare dependency feeds racism among the population - and that is surely not in the general interest. Several surveys have shown that those seeking asylum here are, for the most part, educated people. They have much to offer an economy falling short of skilled workers. Farmers' representatives have, sensibly, raised the question of whether some of the Kosovar refugees could find work on the land, since many of them come from an agricultural background. While Kosovar refugees are in a different legal category from asylum seekers their presence here has elicited a welcoming response, bring it home how deserving others in comparable circumstances are of popular sympathy. Delays and blockages in legal and bureaucratic procedures are of Irish making - notably by Mr O'Donoghue's own department. It is up to the Irish political system to solve these problems, not to visit its uncertainty on people who have arrived in Ireland in the most traumatic personal circumstances. Certainly the numbers have increased sharply in recent years, but from a tiny base. It is ludicrous to suggest that hundreds of thousands of people might come here just because of a humane amendment of our laws about employment. Much more damage could be done to Ireland's flourishing economy in the long term by perpetuating narrow attitudes which feed racism and discourage the country's reputation for welcoming strangers just when it needs them more than ever. We are in the early stages of learning how to cope, learn and benefit from a more multicultural society in Ireland. The lobby in favour of allowing asylum seekers find work is one of the most heartening and progressive campaigns in favour of such rights, which has drawn support across society. This decision by the Select Committee on Justice, Equality and Women's Rights is a setback, following the Cabinet's failure to resolve the issue earlier this year, again under pressure from Mr O'Donoghue. It is by no means the end of the matter.