Sir, - I am sure I am not alone in extending a heartfelt thanks to Liz O'Donnell for her sterling contribution on asylum and development issues during the lifetime of the last Government.
On asylum issues in particular she fought a courageous campaign within a Government which seemed to value control over compassion and whose policies cynically dehumanised and marginalised asylum seekers instead of seeking to vindicate their legal rights and treat them like human beings. Although she did not win all of her battles, she proved that one voice can make a difference. I believe that her actions and views struck a chord with those large numbers of Irish people who have extended the same hand of friendship to newcomers in this country that we ourselves would wish our own emigrants to receive in other places.
I hope the new Minister for Justice, from the same political party as Ms O'Donnell, will show the same open-minded and progressive spirit. He could start with one measure which Liz O'Donnell fought for, and which even our British neighbours, not the most progressive government in Europe on these issues, have had no difficulty in implementing: the right to work.
Asylum seekers should be able to live in dignity, earn their living and pay their way. The present system of dispersal and direct provision, effectively a kind of long-term quarantine, is demeaning, dehumanising, expensive and unnecessary. - Yours, etc.,
PIARAS MAC ÉINRÍ,
Director,
Irish Centre for Migration Studies,
UCC.