North Atlantic Skyline - - Photographs from the west of Ireland (Galway, Mayo, Clare, Limerick, Roscommon and even Leitrim)

Who do you have to kill to get thrown out of this government?

God, it is depressing. I don't know which is worse - listening to Junior Minister Conor Lenihan roaring across the Dail at TD Joe Higgins to 'stick with the kebabs' (meaning the poorly-paid Turkish workers that Higgins, rather than anyone in Government, has been trying to help) or the Justice Minister Michael McDowell, sneering and bragging that, if he had his way, he'd interview asylum seekers at the airport and send them home if he didn't believe their stories (except for the inconvenience of due process).

Lenihan slunk into the Dail later that day* and made the usual 'gee I'm sorry if I offended anyone but I don't know what the fuss is about" half-hearted apology. He is Minister for Overseas Development - I wonder what he calls the citizens of the other countries he visits as part of his job?

I suppose we can't blame Lenihan for being a gobshite. But McDowell should know better. But Minister McDowell approaches every issue with an open mouth and a closed mind, rather than the other way round. Do you remember how McDowell, kicking off the campaign for the citizenship referendum last year, declared that the hospitals were flooded with foreign women coming over to have babies to get citizenship, and that doctors were begging him to do something. Funnily enough, the aforementioned doctors repudiated the minister's claim almost immediately, and now that the referendum is passed, the hospitals are still overcrowded. Maybe that wasn't the problem after all…

It seems that this minister is determined to make immigration, and worse, race, a partisan political issue. When he mocks the stories that asylum seekers tell, as part of the asylum claim, such as "that they had been selected for ritual sacrifice or to carry out a ritual sacrifice in their home country ", that's his not-so-subtle way of referring to African immigrants. Despite the fact that we live in a country gasping for immigrants, and that there is no real competition between immigrant and 'native' workers for the same work, it would seem a mystery why the Minister would try to portray a different picture. Or maybe not.

His outburst comes at a time when gangland crime has increased dramatically, and the Gardai seem hopelessly under-resourced to tackle them (the latest announcement of increased Garda overtime overlooks the fact that Garda drivers were withdrawn from the state pathologist - the sole source of forensic evidence that might actually convict some of the gang members). The next general election may not be so far away and it seems like McDowell has decided to pick a topic on which he can seem 'strong' (since he seems to achieved bugger all else as Minister). That he should try to make an issue of immigration, not because he is racist (because he clearly is not) but because it seems it will gain a short-term political advantage, is truly shameful. (If McDowell really believes that such stories are 'cock-and-bull', maybe he should check out the UK's government advice on travelling to Nigeria, or even Amnesty's report on the same country )In Britain, three successive Conservative leaders attempted to make immigration a centrepiece of their election campaigns, and three times in a row, they were handed a proper caning by the electorate. I wish our own were as fair-minded, but I suspect not, if the last referendum was anything to go by.

But it gets worse. The former government minister from Donegal, Jim McDaid, drove up the wrong side of a dual-carriageway while blind drunk recently - he was only stopped by a motorist who gave chase and blocked him off. His last ministerial job was to lead the government's campaign against drunk-driving. So should he resign his seat. God, no - not only did the government defend him, but the main opposition parties could not bring themselves to call for his resignation. And you wonder why drinking-and -driving is so prevalent in this country…

* Originally stated that Lenihan apologised the following day. Thanks to Loopdiloop for the correction.

Posted by Monasette at May 21, 2005 09:52 AM