Government ministers travelled widely this week to participate in St Patrick's Day parades and celebrate the importance of being Irish, while ignoring a scandal on their own doorstep. The plight of many ageing Irish emigrants in Britain is heart-rending.
And yet the Coalition Government has broken faith with them, closing its ears to appeals for desperately needed funding and its eyes to the shame of people sleeping rough.
An estimated one million Irish-born people now live in Britain and their health is significantly worse than that of the general population. They have a lower life-expectancy, with elevated rates of cancer and heart disease, while a significant proportion suffer from depression and schizophrenia. They are the people who were forced by economic circumstances to leave Ireland in the 1950s and the 1960s. They worked hard in unskilled and often dangerous employment. And the money they remitted often made the difference between savage poverty and merely getting-by for their families at home. In the Dáil, last week, Mr Emmet Stagg estimated their contribution to the Irish economy had amounted to about €3.5 billion.
Now those people are growing old and the hardships they experienced are taking their toll. Many live lives of quiet desperation and isolation. Many others sleep rough. They have no future and little help. Under the National Agreement entitled Prosperity and Fairness, the Government undertook to address the special needs of those people who were particularly marginalised or at the greatest risk of exclusion in Britain. A task force was established to develop a response to their needs.
But its principal recommendation - to increase funding for advice, repatriation programmes and research to €8 million by 2003 - was ignored. This year, only half of that sum will be made available. And the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has confirmed the Government will not establish a dedicated agency for emigrants, as was recommended. Instead, a new unit at the Department of Foreign Affairs will be responsible for emigrant issues.
It is a poor prospect. With the best will in the world, the Department of Foreign Affairs cannot fulfil the responsibilities entrusted to it without adequate funding. Earlier this year, the Catholic Church felt it necessary to launch a fund-raising campaign to provide support services for our people abroad. It operates Irish centres in Britain, Europe, the United States and Australia and does much good work. But the Government must take the lead. It cannot evade its responsibilities or rely on the generosity of individuals to cherish our emigrants and acknowledge the contribution they have made to our society.