Senator wants new migrants to sit exam in English
THE row over immigrants' language skills deepened last night after a Fine Gael senator called for a mandatory English test for all foreigners entering the country.
It comes just two days after controversial remarks by her party colleague, Fine Gael frontbencher Brian Hayes, calling for the "segregation" of immigrant children in secondary schools until they can speak English.
Senator Fidelma Healy-Eames last night said immigrants who wanted to work in the country should have to pass an English language test to improve the process of integration.
"We really need to let foreign nationals know that English is a requirement to live here. It is absolutely ridiculous that some people are here for years without an English competency," she told the Irish Independent.
Under her proposal, immigrants would face preliminary English language competency tests at airports and ports followed by a more detailed test six months later, if necessary.
Condemned
But her call was last night condemned as "unworkable" by immigrant groups, who described the current standard of political debate about immigration as "irresponsible and counterproductive".
Fine Gael party chiefs also sought to distance themselves from Senator Healy-Eames' comments. A party spokesman said mandatory English language testing for immigrants was "not official party policy".
The Government is already preparing to bring in an English language test for citizenship applicants.
But the Immigrant Council of Ireland said Ms Healy-Eames' suggestion was probably "unworkable" and probably could not be applied to EU citizens, who are free to travel within the European Union.
ICI founder Sr Stanislaus Kennedy said the current standard of debate about immigration was "irresponsible and counterproductive".
"It's time for elected representatives to have a serious think about the damage that could be done to our prospects of having a socially cohesive Ireland into the future by this standard of debate," she said.
Sr Kennedy said immigration was a permanent and positive phenomenon.
"It is left to those who work with migrants to make the obvious responses to these types of arguments and that, of course, allows 'experts' and commentators to dismiss those responses as 'political correctness'," she said.
- Michael Brennan Political Correspondent
