Sir, - Is it not astonishing that members of a species on the verge of extinction in Ireland, namely the religious orders, see themselves as having such a disproportionately large claim on the ear of Government? Thus, they send in pre-Budget submissions to mould fiscal policy (CORI) and make the front page of The Irish Times to proclaim their immigration policy (Fr Bill Toner of the Jesuit Centre for Peace and Justice). This, of course, is a free country and they are entitled to do so but I doubt that they see themselves as worthy of merely the same notice in the matter that would be given to the Rathmines and Rathgar Musical Society or the Bundoran Golf Club. They should.
People like Fr Toner who talk their nonsense about the labour market forget that we are a mere 1 per cent of the EU, which has 370 million people and forms a single labour market with us. It is from that 370 million that we are supposed to fill our labour needs. Remember, we are subject to immigration, whether we like it or not, from all of that 370 million, soon to be 430 million. It would take a Jesuit to suggest that we look beyond EU borders. Our employers, of course, are too lazy and unimaginative to target this pool, or to invite the Australians on a one-year work permit who could be allowed home when the bubble bursts. - Yours, etc., Aine Ni Chonaill,
PRO, Immigration Control Platform, Dublin 2.