FG vows to deport immigrants convicted of serious crimes
Party leader Enda Kenny said initiatives were needed before Ireland committed the same mistakes other countries made by neglecting immigrants. He pledged to appoint a minister for immigrant affairs, if Fine Gael seized power in the upcoming election.
Outlining his vision to the party’s 88 election candidates at Clontarf Castle, Dublin, Mr Kenny said: “It’s important to send out a message internationally that this country is not a soft country for criminals.”
Fine Gael said action needed to be taken to cut the number of immigrants dying in road deaths, with 44 non-national being killed in accidents in 2006. A loophole allowing immigrants to escape penalty points with foreign licences must end, he said.
But party TDs admitted when quizzed that despite the call to integrate immigrants into Irish society, not one non-native resident here would be running for the party in the election.
“I don’t think we have anyone. But we have a significant number of members of the party who participate at local levels. It does take time for people to feed into the political system in a new country that they’ve just come into,” explained party spokesman on employment Phil Hogan.
Fine Gael brushed aside suggestions that the sensitive issue of immigrants might backfire on them. Of particular concern for party strategists is language barriers faced by the 400,000 non-nationals here.
There are estimates of 31,000 foreign children in primary schools alone. But there is concern about insufficient language support for new communities.
“I am aware of one school in west Dublin which has over 200 non-national pupils but just two language support teachers, plus one additional discretionary teacher,” said Mr Kenny.
