CASEY DIGS IN AS ALLIANCE CALLS ON HIM TO QUIT RACE
‘No intention of stepping down’
AN ALLIANCE of 28 campaign groups have come together to call on Presidential hopeful Peter Casey to withdraw from the race following his remarks about Travellers. The Community Platform alliance, which is comprised of community and voluntary organisations, yesterday called on Mr Casey to retract the remarks and end his Áras bid. Mr Casey said earlier this week he didn’t believe Travellers should be recognised as an ethnic minority, and that this status for them was a ‘load of nonsense’. He also accused them of ‘camping on other people’s land’ and not paying their share of tax. He made his remarks in relation to a row involving a number of Traveller families who are refusing to move into homes at a €1.7million development because of a dispute with Tipperary County Council. Mr Casey was greeted by protests when he visited the development in Thurles yesterday, while Paul Ginnell, a spokesperson for the Community Platform, said the businessman’s comments ‘only serve to reinforce negative stereotypes and stoke racism and hatred against the Traveller community’.
Community Platform represents such high-profile groups as Age Action Ireland, Focus Ireland, Irish Rural Link, the Rape Crisis Network Ireland, Women’s Aid and the National Women’s Council of Ireland, as well as Pavee Point and the Irish Traveller Movement.
‘The Traveller community is already extremely marginalised in Irish society and Travellers experience exclusion and discrimination in many aspects of their lives,’ Mr Ginnell said.
‘It is critical therefore that the comments by Mr Casey are condemned by all sections of society and we welcome the fact that the other Presidential candidates have done so.’
He continued: ‘The President of Ireland has a crucial role to play in providing moral leadership and communicating and promoting the vision and values for the type of society we want to have.
‘Mr Casey has communicated the type of negative values we see growing in other countries and which sow division and hate. We do not want to see these growing in Irish society, or the Presidential campaign being used to spread them.
‘We therefore call on Mr Casey to retract and apologise for his comments and withdraw from the Presidential race.’
Last night, a spokeswoman for Mr Casey, responding to the Community Platform group request, said he ‘has no intention of stepping down’. She added that the ‘people of Ireland will decide on October 26’.
Leo Varadkar also hit out at Mr Casey’s comments when he was quizzed about the matter during a trip to Brussels.
The Taoiseach said: ‘All I can say is I think his remarks were very divisive.
‘I think they were designed to gain attention for him and his campaign. And I think that’s very regrettable.
‘I hope when the people of Ireland come to vote next Friday, they will give Mr Casey and anyone who holds those views a very clear message.’