DUBLIN: It was the sort of trip Taoiseach Enda Kenny loves, filled with wizardry and widgetry from Irish companies who have pioneered sewage-eating bacteria and James Bond-like digital vehicle tracking systems.
If there was a shadow over Mr Kenny’s official visit to France, it was the omnipresent migration crisis, which he discussed with president Francois Hollande on Thursday and Gérard Collomb, the prominent senator and socialist mayor of Lyons, on Friday. How many migrants will Ireland take? The Taoiseach was questioned at every turn.
The number could well surpass 1,800, Mr Kenny admitted on the sidelines of a breakfast organised by Enterprise Ireland and the Irish Embassy. EU officials talk of asylum for 100,000; the UN would prefer 200,000. “We may well run into very substantial numbers,” he said of the overall European intake.
