It appears that the Tanaiste, Ms Mary Harney, effectively presented the Government with a fait accompli on Monday in ruling out the development of detention centres for immigrants. She is entitled to the thanks of a society which would wish to be an exemplar to the world, rather than be identified with the standards and thinking which the Taoiseach appeared to embrace in Australia. Mr Ahern should have known better. He was questioned on three occasions about his Government's evolving attitude towards asylum seekers in the context of Australia's tough measures - which include the operation of detention centres. The Taoiseach indicated that he was neither ruling in, nor ruling out, the detention centre option.
Coming on the heels of the disclosure by the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, that the Coalition Government had examined the possibility of operating "floatels" off the coast in order to cope with asylum numbers, the response by the opposition parties and caring agencies was predictable. But demands for information and clarification from the Taoiseach went unheeded until last Monday when Mr Ahern finally attempted to explain himself. And a poor enough job he made of it. For the first time - and only after his Progressive Democrats partners had done so - Mr Ahern explicitly ruled out the establishment of detention centres. He attempted to excuse his earlier comments on the grounds of good manners, because he had been standing beside the Australian prime minister, Mr John Howard, when asked about the issue. And he sought to muddy the waters by complaining that reports had confused a visit by him to an integration centre with a detention centre.
It was a self-serving exercise, designed to avoid personal responsibility while transferring blame to the media. It isn't the first time Mr Ahern has sought to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds on controversial issues. There is no doubt the influx of asylum seekers has created significant administrative and accommodation problems for the Coalition Government. Last November, Mr Ahern told the Dail that a number of Dublin hotels and guest houses were full of immigrants and they would have to be dealt with in a more permanent way with regard to housing and accommodation. For months now, the parties in Government have discussed ways and means of dealing with the problem and, next week, Mr O'Donoghue is due to bring legislative proposals to Cabinet. In all of this, the Department of Justice has been keeping in close touch with its British counterparts. Irish legislation is expected to follow trends adopted there. From April 1st, a voucher system will operate in Britain and we are likely to follow suit. A new fast-track detention centre, aimed at processing asylum seekers within seven days, was opened there recently; and four other detention centres are run by private security companies.
The director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Mr Donncha O'Connell, has suggested Mr Ahern's comments in Australia represented an attempt to soften public opinion in advance of the more regressive elements of Government policy of dispersal and direct provision that will be announced next week. Given the long delay in "clarifying" what the Taoiseach had in mind concerning detention centres and their operation, there may be more than a grain of truth in this. Flying "kites"["] to test public opinion has been a traditional feature of government in this country; and shooting the messenger, when things go badly wrong, was a last-gasp defence. The coat-trailing of the Taoiseach on this occasion was so obvious that nobody should be fooled. Plain speaking and the humane treatment of asylum seekers are required.