Seanad report: Immigration to this country had been happening so fast and on so large a scale that we run the risk of being swamped by the sheer size of it, Feargal Quinn (Ind) warned.
Stressing the importance of having specialised instruction to enable immigrant schoolchildren to have competence in English as a second language, he said that while the assigning by the Department of Education of 800 English teachers to schools was commendable, it was a totally inadequate response to a huge problem that had suddenly crept up on us. The heartbreaking fact was that the department's efforts were only a drop in the bucket compared to what was needed.
If we did not grasp this nettle there was a great danger that many of these children would be turned off schools, become drop-outs or, for those who persevere, leave school without sufficient qualifications. We had seen the consequence of this with our own disadvantaged children. Dropping out of school was a ticket to failure in life, to drug problems and to criminality, Mr Quinn said.
We have to invest in our immigrant children and we must do it right away. That would not happen if we were asking a number of departments and Ministers to take an interest in it, he said. "I believe this is one area where you give the responsibility to one Minister and one department and say, 'Can you look after this?' If we do that we can get to the start of solving the problem," said Mr Quinn.
Members debated the Joint Committee on European Affairs Report on Migration.
Mary White (FF) said that the alarm bells were not yet ringing about the kidnapping and daily sexual exploitation of young women from eastern Europe in this country. Referring to a commentary in The Irish Times yesterday, she said the Minister for Justice had been very quick - "up in your face" - when deporting illegals from this country. But what was being done to protect women from the serious slave labour and trafficking that was going on? At the same time, it had to be borne in mind that it was not just the pimps but the customers in this country who were keeping this repulsive business going.
Paul Bradford (FG) said that according to a newspaper report the latest census might show that up to 10 per cent of people resident in this country were from other states. "I think that is great diversity, providing that we put the structures in place to facilitate the presence of new people in Ireland and to facilitate Irish people to deal with it in a progressive fashion."
Joe O'Toole (Ind) said that myths about immigrants which were circulating in pubs and clubs must be dispelled. "The reality, and I think we have failed to get this message out, is that this economy would die on its feet if the hundreds of thousands of immigrant, or non-national, workers were to leave."
Joe Dardis (PD) deputy Government leader in the House, said his party looked forward to the day, very soon, when representatives of the immigrant communities were elected to seats in our parliament.