President Michael D Higgins has called for a mature discussion on the issue of migration, saying policies based on a "politics of fear" were damaging and destructive.
Mr Higgins was speaking in Queensland, Australia, where he spent the day meeting relatives of his ancestors who travelled there in the 1860s.
In an address to locals who gathered for a reception in his honour, President Higgins spoke of the absence of written correspondence between Ireland and Australia in the early stages of the emigrant experience.
He said this happened for a number of reasons but it had led to a "broken connection" with families in both countries.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
He said, as President, he was sorry this had happened and hoped that his visit would serve to build relationships between Ireland and Australia and bring about a re-bonding in the coming years.
Earlier, Mr Higgins laid flowers at the graves of his relatives in Warwick Cemetery.
The graveyard is the final resting place of scores of Irish people who emigrated to Queensland in the 19th Century.
The President said the lexicon of Irish names in Australian graveyards allowed people to construct a social history, simply by reading the names on headstones.
Mr Higgins' links with Queensland have their origins in the 1860s when his great uncle and great aunt were among a group that left from Co Clare under the Queensland Immigration Society, where assisted passage to Australia was offered.
Five out of a family of seven children in the family eventually travelled to Australia.
Speaking in Warwick this afternoon, Mr Higgins said the area had an added significance for him, as his uncle and aunt had also travelled to Queensland and were buried locally.
The President said this was just one part of the Irish migration story - where some people travelled as convicts, others for economic reasons.
He said their experiences highlighted the need for a mature debate about migration.
President Michael D Higgins says he will make a decision on running for a second term in 'the fullness of time' pic.twitter.com/bw9pKdlM4g
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) October 22, 2017
President Higgins said there were cases of voluntary and forced movement, the worst of which at the moment related to the Rohingya people and what he called "the destruction of their capacity to return".
He said it was very necessary to have a view on how you treat those who are vulnerable because they were fleeing and also those who were moving to have a different life.
He said recent examples of policies informed by a "politics of fear" were destructive, instancing comments on migrants during the recent French presidential election.
In an Irish context, he said that emigrants needing the most care from government resources were those who had left home between 1955 and 1960, many of them very elderly now and living alone.
Clear view on plans by next May - President
As he nears the end of his state visit to Australia, the President said he was pleased to have been able to cover so much ground.
He has visited Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Hobart and Warwick.
He said the trip was demanding in that it had been given depth by the meetings he held with Australian leaders as well as business, migrant and cultural leaders.
Mr Higgins said these were not just exchanges of pleasantries but that practical arrangements had been put in place.
Asked if the workload during such visits would inform his decision on whether to seek a second term in office, Mr Higgins said he would find it "an extraordinary construction" if someone was to say that because his state visits were going well, he should be disqualified from any of his options.
He said he would have a "very clear view" on his plans by May of next year, after he had completed a number of European trips and a possible state visit to Canada.
Mr Higgins said he would be taking everything into account in reaching a decision.
He said there was nothing in his presidency that he had not been able to meet in terms of challenges and stressed that he felt he owed it to Ireland and to the Irish people to fulfill commitments he had made regarding his term of office.
Saying he would make up his mind in the fullness of time, Mr Higgins also emphasised that nothing in his decision-making process was an obstacle to anyone else who wanted to throw their hat in the ring for the presidency.
