An understandable chorus of outrage and dismay has accompanied the comments of Mr Ivor Callely on asylum-seekers and illegal immigrants. Mr Callely, the Fianna Fail deputy and the chairman of the Eastern Health Board is concerned about "the block of people coming to Ireland to cash in on the benefits asylum-seekers are able to claim". This State, he warns darkly, has become a "soft target" for illegal immigrants; it was time for the Government to display strong leadership on the issue by getting tough on asylum-seekers and throwing out illegal immigrants.
Mr Callely's comments are strikingly similar in tone to those made by some British Conservatives in the 1960s when British society was coming to terms with the influx of immigrants. His remarks may not be quite as inflammatory as Mr Powell's infamous "rivers of blood" speech but some of the same strands can be detected, not least the sense in which he is playing to the most atavistic instincts of the public. Mr Callely - presumably after some intervention from party officials - was anxious to portray a softer, gentler image yesterday, insisting that he always supported the integration of what he termed "genuine asylum-seekers" as soon as possible. But there remains the strong suspicion that the iconoclastic Mr Callely is not in the least bothered or embarrassed about the controversy; he may even have made the calculation that this kind of crude populism will do him no harm at the ballot box.
The fact remains that the tone and content of Mr Callely's outburst were nothing short of disgraceful. That the remarks should be made by the chairman of the Eastern Heath Board - which has statutory responsibility for 8,000 asylum-seekers in this area - only adds to the sense of shame. Perhaps we should not be unduly surprised; a certain suspicion and intolerance appears to permeate Government, or at least Fianna Fail thinking on the immigration and asylum issue. Last week's long queues and overcrowding at the Refugee Application Centre in Lower Mount Street, and the earlier queues outside the Department of Justice, scarcely suggest a policy built on tolerance and compassion.
The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, has spoken of how the State was being "swamped " by asylum-seekers. Despite the economic imperative, only a small number of jobs have been offered to asylum-seekers since the regulations were supposedly regularised last summer. In any right-thinking progressive society, Mr Callely would be reprimanded by his party and forced to resign from the chairmanship of the Eastern Health Board. His party leader, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, would also distance himself clearly and unambiguously from Mr Callely's remarks. And he would commit himself to an immigration policy of the kind outlined by Ms Liz O'Donnell based on enlightened, humanitarian principles.
Earlier this year, Mr Ahern, during a visit to a refugee centre in Dublin's inner city, demonstrated a great empathy towards asylum-seekers. "There must be nothing more frightening than being a stranger in a strange land", he said. It is time that Mr Ahern set about building a policy based on this kind of understanding, instead of allowing the likes of Ivor Callely to set the agenda.