Seanad report: It was not acceptable that Irish people were required to stand like cattle in front of US immigration agents to have their photographs and fingerprints taken when they had done nothing wrong, said Fianna Fáil's Ms Margaret Cox.
If the Government did not say that to Mr Bush and the US administration about the new procedures that had been introduced at Shannon Airport, "then it is not good enough".
Mr Michael Finucane (FG) demanded to know what authorisation US officials had to introduce these requirements.
Shannon had been used for a considerable period for US military flights, and that had obviously received tacit approval from the Government.
"In that situation, I would like to say to Mr Bush, what have you offered the Irish community by way of recompense except a whole series of restrictions on Irish people working in America, further enhanced by changes in Shannon in recent times."
Mr Brendan Ryan (Labour) said the legislation passed by the Oireachtas did not permit US immigration officials at Shannon to fingerprint or photograph people. "By what legal basis are Irish citizens on this State's sovereign territory being asked to supply fingerprints to the agents of another state?"
The leader of the House, Mrs Mary O'Rourke, said she would seek answers to the queries about the legal basis for the procedures that had been introduced at Shannon.
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Placing a cut-off point of 65 years on the breast-check service was effectively telling older women that they were "of no use", Mrs O'Rourke said.
Ms Cox had stressed the need to introduce an interim strategy to have the service extended to the western and north-western health board areas. Up to 200 women might die if the proposed timetable was adhered to.
Mrs O'Rourke said she did not see why the service should be restricted to an upper age of 65. In the UK these checks went on until 70.
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The Minister for Education, Ms Hanafin, said she would not be reversing the decision to close the Dublin-based St Catherine's College of Education for Home Economics. She was speaking on a Fine Gael motion calling for the rescinding of the college-closure decision by the then Minister, Mr Noel Dempsey, following "political interference".
She said she rejected the notion that the decision to concentrate the provision of home economics teacher training in St Angela's College, Sligo, had been related to political interference. The Dominican trustees of St Catherine's had decided that, for personnel and financial reasons, they were no longer able to fulfil the role of college trustees.
Mr Ulick Burke (FG) said Mr Dempsey had inexplicably decided to take this step even though he had been advised against doing so by senior staff in his Department and by an independent consultant.