Madam, - I was dismayed to hear Senator Brian Hayes's comments about allowances for the children of migrant workers. I hope that his party will quickly condemn sentiments which can only be described as tendentious and in my view border on racist. RTÉ's initial reportage, unusually for a body which usually maintains a fair and balanced approach, was also disappointing. In tone and content, it clearly implied that migrants are in some way getting something to which they are not entitled.
Except for extremely limited cases all EU citizens are entitled to the same rights and so are their children. Irish people have benefited more than most from this. People bringing up their children in their country of origin are actually saving the Irish state money by so doing, compared with the costs which would arise if they brought them here in the initial stages of their stay in Ireland.
Most importantly, migrant workers are significant net contributors to the Irish Exchequer, which gives virtually nothing back to them - not even language classes. They are, in the main, hard-working young people doing the jobs we don't want to do and doing them well.
Given their age, they are relatively less likely to become ill and do not draw any of the other services provided for older persons. They do not receive mortgage relief as they are more likely to be paying rackrent in our unregulated private sector, and are barred from certain benefits because of the habitual residence rule.
Why should migrant workers and their children not be entitled to the same benefits as their Irish counterparts? If migrants contribute so much to this economy and this society, how and why, in legal and ethical terms, can we discriminate against them? We need these migrants for social as well as for economic reasons. If we create a reasonably welcoming society there will be a better chance in the long run that some will actually settle here permanently, with their children, who will represent a precious asset in a society which would otherwise inexorably experience the same rapid rate of demographic decline which is occurring elsewhere in western Europe.
Migrants will not solve the challenge of falling fertility, but they can greatly alleviate its effects, as an increasing proportion of Irish society moves into the over-65 age bracket in the next 30 years and the percentage of those of working age declines.
Starting with Pat Rabbitte's populist but cheap, focus-group-inspired comments a few weeks ago, an ugly mood is emerging in sectors of the population, much of it based on ignorance and misinformation.
While I think the Government is essentially in the right on this occasion, it must take some of the blame for not tackling the rumours and misinformation and for not providing a more forthright style of political leadership. - Yours, etc,
PIARAS MAC EINRI, Department of Geography, University College Cork.