Seanad passes Immigration Bill despite walkout

The controversial Immigration Bill 2004 has been passed by the Seanad, despite most of the Opposition benches walking out in protest.

The Bill was drafted by the Minister for Justice following last week's High Court decision that current law governing the entry and control of immigrants in the State was unconstitutional.

He sent draft copies of the proposed legislation to Opposition parties on Wednesday, but they rejected it, claiming he was trying to rush it through.

They also argued the new laws would bar foreign nationals convicted of offences in other states from Ireland, even if they were not considered to be crimes here. The bill also had a provision allowing immigration officials to block non-nationals suffering "from a prescribed disease or disability".

The Opposition claimed this definition was too loose and would allow discrimination against the disabled, but a spokesman for Mr McDowell said this clause only referred to infectious diseases and people with "profound mental disturbance such as psychopathic behaviour".

Mr McDowell decided to postpone the Dáil debate until next week, but persisted in holding a Seanad debate today with the wording of the bill changed slightly to include a tighter definition of "disability".

All stages of the bill were passed, despite loud protests and a walkout by most Fine Gael, Labour and Independent Senators. During the debate, Fine Gael's Senator Sheila Terry claimed the bill would bar Nelson Mandela from ever visiting Ireland, as he was in contravention of an element of the bill which bars immigrants who have served more than a year in prison.

However, a spokesman for Mr McDowell told ireland.comMs Terry's claim was "completely false". He said the provisions on immigrants with criminal records in new bill were exactly the same as the Aliens Act it was replacing. The State reserves the right to refuse anyone with a criminal record, he said, but this was only done on a case-by-case basis where the person was deemed a risk.

The bill will be debated in the Dáil next Wednesday.