Sir, - Maire Geoghegan Quinn's attempt to champion the cause of asylum seekers by denigrating other immigrants made me shake with anger. Irish asylum policy may look at cases "very carefully indeed" but it ignores the people who lodge them. It leaves people in a state of limbo, not allowed to work and without access to education, for as long as two years. Important decisions are made by faceless committees whose methods are anything but transparent and whose criteria is more informed by bureaucracy than humanity.
Yet all this ignores economic immigrants. It ignores the effect of a global economy (ask the people of Clonmel). It ignores the legacies of corrupt regimes and it totally ignores our emigrant history. The perceived "immigrant problem" has raised more questions about ourselves than our visitors. Shame on Mrs Geoghegan-Quinn, shame on us all. - Yours, etc.,
From Brendan Hennessy
Croaghta Park, Glasheen Road, Cork.