John O'Donoghue, rejects call from Irish bishops to consider allowing asylum seekers to stay
The Minister for Justice, John O'Donoghue, has rejected a call from Irish bishops for the Government to consider allowing 15,000 asylum seekers to stay in the country to clear the current backlog of applications. A committee of the Catholic Hierarchy in Ireland said there was a strong case for regularising their position on humanitarian and pragmatic grounds. But Mr O'Donoghue told RTÉ News that such a move would reward people who were illegal immigrants.
The committee of the Catholic Hierarchy said that around 15,000 people should be allowed stay here and it pointed out that this was small number compared with the number of job vacancies in the country. The bishops had three proposals: grant refugee status on a bloc basis to all who have applied for asylum by a certain date, or allow asylum seekers to apply for immigrant worker status, or thirdly, grant humanitarian leave to those already here. The Bishops committee said that to deport some people now and allow others in as immigrants in years to come would seem hard to defend in moral or practical terms.
However John O'Donoghue has responded with an emphatic "no " on RTÉ radio this afternoon. The Minister said an amnesty would reward illegal immigrants and he said it would lead to more immigrants arriving here with the expectation of other amnesties in the future.
Meanwhile, Gardaí are treating as suspicious a fire at a County Tipperary hotel in which it is proposed to place thirty asylum-seekers. The fire broke out yesterday in the Vee Valley Hotel in Clogheen. Protesters in Clogheen, opposed to the accommodation of asylum seekers in the village, have dissociated themselves from the suspected arson. However a protest at the hotel, which has been closed for some time, is continuing. Last night, local people voted to place a picket on the hotel after they were told that it would be used to accommodate the asylum-seekers. They have agreed to negotiate that no more than ten would be located in the village.
