Sir, - Aine Ni Chonaill's response (April 12th), on behalf of the Immigration Control Platform, to my letter on immigration policy (March 31st) fails to address the core issues that I raised:
1. The increase in the rejection rate of refugee status for asylum-seekers sits very uneasily with our economic success (a growth rate three times higher than the EU average), our history and our reputation as a land of welcomes. These factors plus the relatively small scale of the problem in Ireland are the very reasons why we might well take the lead in coming up with imaginative solutions.
2. Irish law on the status of non-nationals who have had children born in Ireland is not being enforced.
Ms Ni Chonaill is rather naive if she believes that all Irish emigrants to the US in the 1980s kept within the law. The building sites and restaurants of New York and Boston and beyond were full of Irish immigrants working illegally. - Yours, etc.,
Gerry Loughrey, Coolatree Park, Beaumont, Dublin 9.