Attempts by opposition deputies to allow asylum-seekers to seek work permits while awaiting determination on their applications failed during a session of the Select Committee on Justice, Equality and Women's Rights yesterday.
There was a tied vote on a Labour Party motion to introduce work permits during the committee stage of the Immigration Bill; opposition motions need an absolute majority to prevail.
Members of Fianna Fail, including the chairman of the committee, Mr Eoin Ryan, called on the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, to accept the Labour Party amendment. It would have allowed asylum-seekers who had been awaiting a decision on their status for more than three months to apply for a permit.
Proposing the motion, the Labour spokesman on Justice, Mr Brendan Howlin, said that his own constituency (Rosslare) had become a major point of entry for people seeking asylum in Ireland. In his home town of Wexford there were refugees "skilled and able" looking for work.
AS was recruiting in other countries looking for people with skills when there are people in this country with the skills they are looking for".
Asylum seekers coming to Shannon Airport were not allowed to work, although there was a large industrial estate nearby seeking workers.
Fianna Fail deputy Ms Marian McGennis said she supported the motion.
The Fine Gael spokesman on Justice, Mr Jim Higgins, also supported the Labour amendment to the Bill.
Mr Ryan said he agreed with the other deputies and asked if the Minister could look again at the issue.
Replying to the debate, Mr O'Donoghue said he had no personal prejudice about asylum seekers. His job was "to look after the interests of the Irish people".
"I have no difficulty with foreign nationals coming here to work." But this was a matter of regulating legal immigration, which Mr O'Donoghue said he would actively support.
In this instance people had to ask if it "is the right policy that people illegally in the country should have the right to work". There were hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants in the EU at present and, if work permits were granted to those coming to Ireland it would create a "pull factor" that would attract more. He pointed out that in Ireland asylum seekers were entitled to social welfare.
Mr O'Donoghue also rejected amendments from Labour and Fine Gael seeking to restrict the discretionary powers of immigration officers and strengthening the appeals procedures. However, he accepted amendments to safeguard immigrants from deportation on the basis that they belonged to particular groups such as religious and ethnic minorities.