Madam, - In the current discussion on immigration, all the emphasis is on the commercial benefit to us: our health service could not cope without immigrant workers, our building industry would grind to a halt, our tourist industry would collapse, etc. Even the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, seems to welcome the movement of workers from underdeveloped countries to Ireland (The Irish Times, January 6th).
Is it not time to consider the wellbeing of the countries supplying these immigrants? Every trained worker coming here from an underdeveloped country is a transfer of resources from that country to Ireland. The richest get the best and to hell with the rest.
In terms of GDP per capita we are now second only to the US, and in terms of productivity per hour worked we are second only to France. We have full employment, though there are still pockets of high unemployment. So why do we need to bleed countries such as Latvia, a small country of 2.3 million, now supplying us with a disproportionate number of its most productive citizens?
For centuries the European powers exploited the resources of Africa, Asia and South America. We are now joining in that exploitation of underdeveloped countries by inducing their most productive people to come here to sustain the Celtic Tiger. And for what? Is it so that we can have three holidays instead of two, or that we change our car more frequently? No doubt we will salve our consciences by sending some economic aid through the EU, having robbed them of a primary resource to grow their own economies.
As a nation we are uniquely qualified to appreciate the consequence of a talent drain, a drain which affects generations and which cannot be offset by any meagre remittances home. We have been exploited in the past, but apparently 10 years of prosperity have wiped our memory clean - wiped even the memory of the Catholic Church. - Yours, etc,
FACHTNA O'REILLY, Birchley, Model Farm Road, Cork.