All-party support sought for motion on Tibet

SEANAD REPORT: AGREEING THAT there was a need for consistency in our policy, Dan Boyle (GP) deputy Government leader in the House, said Ireland had recently recognised Kosovo, which had nothing like the territorial or national integrity of a place like Tibet. He hoped that the Seanad could speak with one voice on Tibet.

He believed a motion tabled in the names of five Independent members could provide a basis, subject to checking by the Department of Foreign Affairs, for an all-party approach.

The motion asks the Seanad among other things to support the declaration of the Fourth World Parliamentarians Convention on Tibet adopted by legislators from 30 countries in support of Tibet's goal of genuine autonomy,

Ronan Mullen (Ind) said Fianna Fáil had had a great record in asserting republican values internationally. However, it was regrettable that some of those moral values were being lost. He accepted that there were economic pressures and that we had to keep good relations as much as possible with countries such as China.

He thought it was tragic that when a Minister took part in the St Patrick's Day celebrations in Beijing, it was left to the Minister for Foreign Affairs to instruct officials here to make "the point" about what was going on in Tibet.

Mr Mullen said our moral voice internationally would be lost if we could not assert our core principles in support of the dignity of the person globally.

A Labour member called on the Taoiseach to apologise for "insulting" comments about the efforts of lobbyists to have the position of the undocumented Irish in the US regularised.

Alan Kelly clashed with Seanad leader Donie Cassidy, who accused the Fine Gael/Labour government of 1983-87 of running tens of thousands of Irish people out of the country.

Mr Kelly told him to stop acting the clown and address the issue on which he claimed the Taoiseach and the Government were all over the place. The plight of "illegal" Irish people in Boston was scary, said Mr Kelly. They were disgusted with the latest comments by Mr Ahern.

Since the failure of the US Congress to pass immigration reform legislation, the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform and others had been working very closely with the Irish and the American governments to bring about a bilateral agreement, which was achievable. "The Irish lobby is very strong in the States, and if it can be done with Chile, with Singapore and with Australia it surely can be done with Ireland."

The Taoiseach would have another chance to reiterate the Government's support for a bilateral approach when he addressed the joint sitting of the US Houses of Congress shortly.

Mr Cassidy said that everyone in the Seanad wanted to see the same result in relation to the undocumented Irish. As a result of our economic success, a huge number of undocumented people had been attracted back here in recent years.

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times