Screening of immigrants is 'racist', says Adams

Fine Gael leader Mr Michael Noonan should withdraw his "racist" call for compulsory health screening for all asylum-seekers, Mr Gerry Adams said today.

In an interview with ireland.comMr Gerry Adams asked: "Why of all the international visitors who come to Ireland should the refugees be singled out?"

Accepting that Mr Noonan’s comments were not considered, Mr Adams said: "I think that his remarks that refugees should have a [compulsory] health screening are racist and I think he should withdraw them".

Yesterday, Mr Noonan told RTE's Today with Pat Kennyprogramme that while he supported compulsory screening he doubted if it would be "constitutionally possible".

Mr Adams said all the political parties had made a pre-election pledge to keep racism out of the campaign. This anti-racist pledge appeared to have been the first election promise to be broken, even before polling day, Mr Adams said.

Why of all the international visitors who come to Ireland should the refugees be singled out? Mr Gerry Adams

Labour Party leader Mr Ruairí Quinn also came out strongly against the Fine Gael view of introducing compulsory health screening for asylum-seekers.

He said the notion of segregating people because of where they come from is discriminatory, and it would also probably be legally impossible.

Earlier today, outgoing Minister for Finance Mr Charlie McCreevy said he supported compulsory health screening for all asylum-seekers "because it was a good idea".

Mr Noel Dempsey, outgoing Minster for the Environment and Local Government, said voluntary health screening was part of the asylum seeker process. "Most serious applicants for asylum take the voluntary test otherwise the application doesn’t come into me".