The Minister for Justice had shown impeccably bad taste by inviting Kosovan refugees here when we were unable to deal properly with the refugees we already had in this country, Mr David Norris (Ind) told the Seanad.
Only last week the House had heard of the case of a woman refugee whose husband had been murdered and her children butchered. She had been raped and had borne a seriously handicapped child as a result. Yet she had been turned down for refugee status here.
"So, let's not start prating about our humanity. This simply is a piece of hypocrisy."
Earlier, Mr Joe O'Toole (Ind) accused the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, of displaying impeccably bad timing by announcing, in the midst of receiving Kosovan refugees, that restrictions on numbers would apply in future. It was an inappropriate announcement that should be corrected, Mr O'Toole said.
Mr Joe Costello (Lab), referring to the Minister's statement, said: "He didn't have to spell it out. He didn't have to take the good out of the arrival by doing that."
Ms Therese Ridge (FG) said it seemed ridiculous that refugees were not being allowed to work here at a time when it was being stated that we were trying to source 30,000 workers from abroad because of labour shortages in this country.
Only a week ago, Ms Ridge said, a refugee woman had been fined £1,000 for breaking the Road Traffic Act while trying to earn money by traversing a four-lane motorway with a child to sell a product. Surely there must be a better way of providing occupational employment for refugees?
Mr Michael Finneran (FF) said industrialists based here were trying to find 30,000 workers from outside the State. At a time when we had around 200,000 people unemployed, something must be wrong. Mr Michael Lanigan (FF) said one way of tackling the labour shortage was to examine ways of changing legislation that forced people, particularly those in the public service, to retire at the early age of 55 years. The Leader of the House, Mr Donie Cassidy, said there was a massive labour shortage in the services side of industry. He would allow a detailed debate on the matter in the near future.