Sir, - I could hardly believe my eyes when I read the letter from Gregor Kerr of the "Anti-Racism Campaign" (December 4th). It is clear that the writer had not bothered to read the statement issued by me before writing his intemperate comments. I don't know who makes up the "Anti-Raciscm Campaign" but I do hope that it contains within its ranks members of Fine Gael who, like me, have striven to reduce community tensions and have sought the implementation of humane, sensitive and appropriate co-ordinated strategies through State agencies to deal with the problems arising from the influx of immigrants. The Taoiseach was good enough to recognise in the Dail that I have been raising this in a constructive and sensitive way and one which sets out to approach the problem in a co-ordinated way, involving NGOs and State agencies. As I pointed out, doing nothing is not an option. To leave immigrant families to the mercy of ad hoc residential settlement on the one hand, and host communities unprepared on the other hand, is grossly unfair to both. In the absence of evidence to the contrary I can only presume your correspondent is pursuing some other agenda. - Yours, etc.,
From Gay Mitchell TD
Dail Eireann, Dublin 2.