McDowell defends exclusion on health grounds

People with tuberculosis, syphilis, drug addiction and profound mental disturbance could be denied leave to land in Ireland following the passage of the controversial and emergency Immigration Bill in the Dáil yesterday.

The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, said that active tuberculosis, syphilis and other parasitic diseases were included on public health grounds, in the event of an outbreak.

These diseases were identified by the World Health Organisation as a danger to the public and the Minister said that "I cannot have a situation where immigration officers could not keep such a disease out of Ireland. Who else is going to be at the airports if SARS or some variant thereof becomes a live issue."

But the opposition described the range of specified illnesses as too broad and "heavy-handed".

Labour's spokesman, Mr Joe Costello, said the section "gives power to an immigration officer to make a blanket refusal if he or she is satisfied. That is the level of proof required".

Mr McDowell said, however, that "refusal on health grounds has been very rarely employed in the past and there should be not great change in that pattern in the future". Nonetheless, "it would not be in the public interest to leave Ireland alone among the countries of the world, defenceless against such an outbreak".

The legislation, which was passed by 63 to 53 votes, was rushed through the Seanad and Dáil following a High court ruling last month that struck out as unconstitutional, ministerial orders controlling immigration.

The first draft of the section dealing with mental health was amended, after claims that it would allow the State to discriminate against people with disabilities.

Mr McDowell denied reports that "we will be packing the mentally ill back onto planes and effectively avoiding our moral responsibilities for such people. It is as if there will be psychologists out at the airport checking people for mental illness, with the State saying those people will not get into Ireland because we do not want to foot the bill for their treatment. That is not what this is about at all."

He said that under EU law, profound mental disturbance, which means manifest conditions of psychotic disturbance with agitation, delirium, hallucinations or confusion, were grounds for a member state to refuse to give right of access to another State.

He insisted that it was a "very narrow subset of psychiatric ill-health and it sets a high bar at which an immigration office must make a decision." But Mr Aengus Ó Snodaigh (SF, Dublin South-Central) said that everyone who had these conditions "is not going to show outward signs". He asked: "will we medically screen immigrants to ensure we catch all these diseases and expel those suffering from them even Irish people returning with these diseases".

Mr Finian McGrath (Ind, Dublin North-Central) said he was concerned about the way issues of mental illness and disability were dealt with.

"An idea seems to be lodged in the minds of people, whether politicians or legislators that individuals with a mental illness are necessarily violent or disruptive or dysfunctional in some way. The reality is that 90 per cent of people with this illness are not violent but a small minority are." The Bill now goes back to the Seanad for consideration of Dáil amendments.