Sir, - Fr Tony O'Riordan from the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice is quoted (The Irish Times, May 11th) as describing the Minister for Justice's plans for retention and subsequent deportation of asylum-seekers who are found not to merit refugee status to be "ethnic cleansing, Irish style" and "almost a licence for people prone to racist tendencies". On the basis of these comments I can only assume that Fr O'Riordan believes that anyone who arrives in Ireland from any country in the world should be entitled automatically to permanent residence and enjoyment of all the other entitlements of Irish citizenship.
One can agree or disagree with this open-door policy. I believe however that before taking the weight of national policy-making on his shoulders, Fr O'Riordan should look at the role of the Jesuit order in Ireland and its own policies of social segregation. Parents of those attending ordinary underfunded schools across the country worry about the impact of the arrival in the classroom of non-English speaking children on their offspring's education. Parents who are affluent enough to be able to afford the fees charged by the secondary schools run by the Jesuits in Dublin and Kildare need have no such worries. The sons of asylum seekers or refugees will not be ending up there, anymore than anyone else who doesn't have a spare £3,000 a year, except perhaps a few token scholarship holders.
It is deeply hypocritical for anyone to label those people who have reason to be worried about competition for bottom-of-the-market housing and poorer educations for their children as having "racist tendencies" when for so long so much of Irish society, including the Jesuit order, has conspired to allow the rich to live lives separate from the less fortunate around them. - Yours, etc.,
Rob Cannon, Lincoln College Oxford OX1 3DR UK.