Sir - Maire Geoghegan-Quinn's analysis of the plight of asylum-seekers in Ireland (Opinion, January 10th) is deceptively simple. It is not a fact that "we look after those seeking asylum in this State very carefully indeed"; it is her subjective assessment - and one that begs a challenge.
The service that asylum-seekers receive from many Government bodies is lacking in many respects. Has Mrs Geoghegan-Quinn forgotten the industrial action taken by health board workers in a unit for the homeless in Dublin last year because they were so miserably ill-equipped to meet the needs of refugees? Does she know that nurses, social workers, doctors and others have day-to-day problems dealing with the needs of asylum-seeking families in distress because of the lack of interpreters, and also the lack of relevant knowledge about the cultures of these people and the situations that they have fled from?
She states that the procedures recently established for the processing of applications for asylum are "fair, logical and dignified". However, a fundamental concern for some of us is the need to have procedures in place that are not only fair but that are seen to be fair. The present Government's decision to scrap plans for an independent refugee board, replacing it with an internal Department of Justice process is a step in the wrong direction.
Asylum-seekers cost the State money because they are not allowed to work, not because they want to live off the State, and it is disingenuous to announce the amount they cost the State without including that fact also.
Perhaps Maire Geoghegan-Quinn could start a genuinely helpful movement to lobby her former colleagues to allow asylums-eekers the option of working? work? I'm sure the many service industries in the country crying out for staff would support her. - Yours, etc.,
Weirview Drive, Stillorgan, Co Dublin.