Madam, - You will not be surprised that I take issue with Liam Ó Géibheannaigh (April 28th). But at the outset I would like to congratulate The Irish Times for publishing his letter and facilitating public debate on the important issue of integration, described by the Taoiseach in the Dáil last week as the most important facing the country.
Far from shrinking from public debate on the issues for some reason of "political correctness", as Mr Ó Géibheannaigh implies, I take the opposite view. It is only by having a public debate and exchanges that people can reach informed opinions.
He is correct when he says a recent British House of Lords committee reported that there were few benefits for the host community in large-scale immigration. Despite that finding, the committee concluded, using a test of the impact of immigration on the purse of each individual resident, that immigration had "a largely neutral effect on economic well-being".
At his press conference on the day the report was published, April 1st, the British prime minister, Gordon Brown, strongly disagreed with the report's findings. None of the recommendations have been implemented.
I should point that in its submission to the committee in November last, drawing on sources such as the Office of National Statistics, the Bank of England and the OECD, the British Government concluded that migrants contributed £6 billion to output growth in 2006 and that 17 per cent of economic growth in 2004-5 was directly attributable to immigration.
Here at home we have had the benefit of reports from, among others, the ESRI and the OECD, and the views are that migration has been and continues to be of value and importance to Ireland.
I look forward to continued debate on this matter. - Yours, etc,
CONOR LENIHAN TD,
Minister for Integration,
Mespil Road,
Dublin 4.