Alarm was voiced at the prospect of mass deportation of refugees in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Mr Joe Costello (Lab) asked that the Minister for Justice be informed of concerns that there had been a return to the situation that had existed before the 1996 refugees legislation. This reversion meant that there would be no independent assessment and no recourse to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, he said. The Fine Gael Seanad leader, Mr Maurice Manning, said that while the refugees issue was a very complex one, he felt there was a certain harshness and bureaucratic neatness about the solution put forward by the Minister.
Mr David Norris (Ind) insisted that the Minister come to the Seanad and disclose what procedures were being used to exclude refugees.
The House leader, Mr Donie Cassidy, undertook to pass on members' concerns to the Minister. He felt sure all senators would have been pleased with the previous day's court findings in relation to the various serious aspects that would have emerged if the decision had not come out proper and right.