The Cabinet will be presented today with a comprehensive package of proposals by the Minister for Justice to deal with the refugee, asylum, and immigrations problems, which are placing huge pressures on the services of the State. This development is long overdue. Thanks largely to the weekend intervention by the Taoiseach, bruised no doubt by the sharp reaction generated by his attitude to mandatory detention centres in Australia, a co-ordinated policy on the question of legal and illegal immigrants is set to emerge.
Irrespective of the political difficulties in which he subsequently found himself, there is no denying the fact that the Taoiseach did some service in Australia by bringing the immigration problems to the top of the Government's agenda. Mr Ahern's exposition of the growth in immigration into this State - particularly in the past year - and the difficulties it is creating for the Social Welfare, accommodation and integration services cannot be ignored.
The problem, as enunciated by the Taoiseach, is that 1,000 immigrants per month are coming into Ireland, ranking Ireland joint second in the EU with Austria for the volume of asylum applications as a percentage of population. The trend is continuing this year, with 1,840 applications lodged in January and February. He suggested that the accommodation provided to asylum-seekers was "usually better than we would give to our own people seeking affordable housing". The stock will run out in the summer. Over and above all else, however, Mr Ahern placed special emphasis on current practice whereby all applicants - legal or illegal - are given equal access to all benefits in this State. The processing of cases takes an average of one year, which seems unduly long even allowing for the exercise of their constitutional rights.
These developments cannot be ignored any longer. Furthermore, it is difficult to see how the Government can deal with the problem in isolation from the demand for 200,000 immigrant workers to be allowed into the State in coming years to fill labour shortages. The kite flown by the Taoiseach - deliberately or otherwise - that mandatory detention centres could be entertained has been shot down. But there is now speculation that reception centres to house, clothe and feed immigrants while their applications are being processed could resurface. The idea of "flotels", whereby immigrants would be held on huge barge-like constructions in ports around the State, has a whiff of the prison ships of the past.
If the conventional options for housing, feeding and integrating immigrants are to be set aside by the Government, a convincing case will have to be made for departing, even temporarily, from the minimum social norms enjoyed by the population at large. The ham-fisted way in which the Coalition has tried to side-step the refugee problem in recent times augurs badly for the production of a comprehensive, humane and principled immigration policy today. It cannot be easily forgotten that Irish emigrants were welcomed on many shores for many generations in our history. We have special obligations to show the world a lead, rather than opting for a solution at the lowest common denominator of humane treatment.