Sir, – I have been living and working in Ireland since 2007 when I was appointed to a permanent academic post at Trinity College Dublin. For me, living in Ireland is a dream come true. I was born and raised near Seattle in the US and always imagined a life in Ireland.
Perhaps unknown to many in the public is that any non-EU national is required to register with the Garda every year, with a fee of €300 each time. This includes highly skilled workers who have moved to Ireland permanently. Each year since 2007, I have spent the better half of a day waiting for my stamp at Burgh Quay. I am not writing about the past, but rather about a change at the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB), Burgh Quay, Dublin.
Only recently this office was made a centre for processing registration nationally, and the result is that people like me, and my wife and six-month-old daughter are required to queue into the alleyway with between 50 to 100 others for an hour or two before being allowed to queue inside for four or five hours more.
This new overcrowding, misdirection and general confusion mean that in order to get GNIB cards for my wife and me, I arrive at 7.30am, wait outside in the elements, just to begin an eight-hour day waiting for a stamp and card. The problems apply also to those who need re-entry visas from the same office, and who are turned away from the office by 8am, having travelled some distance, and often at real expense.
Surely guests to Ireland, who are here to serve and contribute, and who are doing so according to the laws of the land, should expect more dignity when doing so. Since non-EU students from abroad also must endure the same, and because Irish universities are keen to recruit these students, there is certainly a better foot to put forward than this.
In writing this I do so not to criticise the officers, but rather to encourage the Government to prioritise investing in a solution to an undignified problem. If there is any doubt, just imagine your cardiologist from India getting drenched with his wife and kids in an alley at the quay side each year to register with the Garda. – Yours, etc,
Prof BENJAMIN WOLD,
Department of Religions
and Theology,
Trinity College Dublin,
Dublin 2.