A chara, - Our dear Minister of Justice is afraid of a "disproportionate number of asylum-seekers" coming to Ireland if they were allowed to work here while waiting for their claims to be dealt with. Considering the number of people living in Ireland before the Famine, surely a few thousands added to our current 3.6 million Irish people wouldn't make much of a difference. Furthermore, the right to work has not led to every EU national coming to Ireland either.
So what is he afraid of? Further "pressure on the asylum-processing system"? There are probably enough skilled people among the asylum-seeking community to be employed by the Department to alleviate this pressure. So what is his problem?
Maybe he would like to come along to our annual Famine Walk which is taking place on August 16th in Galway, which will highlight the situation of refugees and asylum-seekers coming to Ireland whilst commemorating our own "refugees".- Yours, etc., Heike Vornhagen,
Co-ordinator, Galway
One World Centre,
William Street West,
Galway.