Madam, - Fintan O'Toole says (Opinion, May 6th) that the Immigration Control Platform has been "a miserable failure". It would seem very hard to contradict him.
At the time of our foundation in January 1998, the annual rate of asylum applications was 3,883. It has now reached 11,634. The cost of asylum has risen to €340 million. Deportations are at a pathetic 521 per annum, almost all of them to Eastern Europe. The rate of deportation to Nigeria, the source of over one third of applications is 46!
Since our foundation, automatic citizenship, instead of being repealed as it should have been, has been constitutionally enshrined (Good Friday Agreement, Easter 1998).
In spite of all of the above, Michael McDowell claims correctly that 95 per cent of people in this democracy want strong immigration controls. Work the contradiction out for yourself.
Meanwhile, we in ICP will just continue to work. - Yours, etc.,
ÁINE NÍ CHONAILL, Immigration Control Platform, Dublin 2.