Heat rising in FF on immigration misinformation
‘Drogheda will lose €100,000 per week’
THE Department of Integration is failing to act on misinformation on refugees, a heated meeting of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party has heard.
A lack of communication from the department with local representatives is contributing to a ‘climate of fear and misinformation’ that is being exploited by the ‘far right’, the meeting was told.
Fianna Fáil TDs and senators warned their leader Micheál Martin that migration will be a ‘difficult’ issue on the doorsteps as it heads into local and European elections this summer. The Tánaiste is understood to have told colleagues that an internal committee will be established to examine the party’s stance on immigration issues.
The parliamentary party met on Wednesday night to discuss immigration for the second week in a row, in a sign of how the issue has risen to the top of the political agenda.
It is understood that up to 10 additional members of the parliamentary party spoke on the issue.
Cork TD Pádraig O’Sullivan told the meeting he was ‘frustrated’ at how a developer in his area had renovated a property for housing Ukrainians and registered it with the department, but the ‘far right’ had pushed ‘disinformation’ about what it was to be used for and it had ‘got out of hand’.
‘His frustration was that the department did not get proper information out there’ a source said. ‘There was disinformation that men only were going to move into the unit, the department dealt with it appallingly. Apparently it sat there for six months and the department didn’t react or act on it essentially. He was frustrated and his argument was that it led to a climate of fear and misinformation.
‘That led to a vacuum and the spread of disinformation from the far right.’
Others claimed a sense of unfairness is emerging in communities over the provision of services to refugees.
One senior member of the parliamentary party said: ‘They raised the fact that the hotels were gone, there’s no services for local people, or the fact there are taxis bringing in Ukrainians to schools, but people can’t get their kids on the school buses.
‘It’s going to be a difficult issue for Fianna Fáil on the doorsteps, that’s what they all said, they were talking about services, and hotels closing down, and that the department was not doing a good job.
‘It’s not that nobody doesn’t want to help, but it seems to be becoming overwhelming and overpowering at the moment.’
It is understood that Kilkenny TD John McGuinness asked where all the services were for local people with regards to pharmacies, doctors and schools. ‘There is a lack of community consultation,’ he is understood to have said.
‘The leadership were told that if they had listened to us 15 months ago we wouldn’t be in this problem,’ another source added.
‘The policy they have is a shambles,’ another added.
One source said that Senator Erin McGreehan told the meeting that the Government was on the ‘wrong track’ on the issue, while stressing that everyone wants to do the right thing and take in Ukrainians. ‘The single biggest complaint was that there was no communication from the department and that it was a dysfunctional department. How can we address it locally if we can’t engage with the department,’ a source said. It is understood that Mr Martin responded by saying that Ireland had international obligations and ‘did the usual thing’ by saying would set up a committee within Fianna Fáil to get their position on the issue ahead of the local and European elections.
A source said: ‘We are getting it in the neck, up and down the country. We have been pleading with Micheál and [Integration Minister] Roderic [O’Gorman] for 15 months for engagement and we have been treated like absolute s***. They are bulldozing their way through and taking in the numbers and being the best boy in class.
‘They’ve reached a tipping point here and it’s a dangerous one.
‘They’re completely deaf to the anger that people are expressing and a desire for them to be included.’
The Department of Integration was contacted for comment. DROGHEDA will lose out on €100,000 per week in income as a result of the Department of Integration using 500 beds at the D Hotel for asylum seekers, it has been claimed.
Councillors yesterday met with Integration Minister Roderic O’Gorman following the latest controversy over housing applicants.
Local independent councillor Kevin Callan said there had been ‘no consultation’.
‘People are extremely angry about the situation of losing the hotel. He has left the town in a terrible position.’
Mr Callan also said that claims that the Department engaged with local authorities before procuring the use of the D hotel in the town was ‘blatant lies’.
Mr O’Gorman said the dual use of the hotel was being looked at, with the hotel staying open for some tourists and international protection applicants. He is set to meet with the councillors again next week.
Cllr Callan said: ‘This has nothing to do with the people who are seeking accommodation. What the Government has done by not consulting with officials or elected reps, they are putting these people into a town where the government’s poor approach, they are being blamed for it, and it has nothing to do with them.’
He said that they had told the Minister that it would cost the town €100,000 per week in lost income and up to €5.4million over the year as a result of the lost beds.
‘We know all of this at the tip of our fingers,’ he said, adding that they had never been asked to provide this data. ‘At the stroke of a pen, the Department has wiped out 10 years of work [in regards to tourism].
‘When we got the statement last week it said there was consultation. It said local representatives were consulted. We were not consulted. It was blatant lies. That was put to the Minister and there was no response back from it.
‘The statement at the time said that local agencies had been briefed and consulted. We weren’t.’
A spokeswoman for the Department said: ‘In relation to providing information, the Community Engagement Team sends a detailed brief covering all the relevant information to all elected representatives, relevant local authorities, local development companies, community response fora and other groups in an area in advance of a new accommodation centre opening.
‘It also engages directly and responds to queries, to ensure that all this relevant information is shared widely.’
‘The policy is a shambles’