‘The other Lenihan‘ is also in the news today, with another of our ‘national problems’ : how will we deal with the delightfully termed Integration Issue.
Again, it’s good to see someone at least seeming to tackle the issue head on but by the same token, are the Messrs Lenihan merely paying lipservice to their new titles while silly season is in full swing?
It’s all very well to acknowledge that there may be problems in the future if we ghetto-ise all incoming foreign nationals at this stage - and it’s perfectly valid to admit that many “Irish” (capital I) families may become distressed when the schools in their areas come under pressure from the sheer number of immigrant families arising. The vital thing is that we deal with this now, immediately - in fact if we’re going to be honest about it, we needed to deal with this five years ago. If we want to have a livable (sp?) society in ten years time, we need to provide the facilities and infrastructure and systems now, so that the tensions that Lenihan hints at here don’t have to arise.
Let’s not give people a supposed excuse for intolerance.
