LEO: I HOPE IRELAND IS NOT DESTROYED BY RACIST HATE
Warning over anti-immigrant sentiment
FORMER Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he has serious concerns about growing anti-immigrant sentiment and protests.
He also warned that some people are experiencing racism “for the first time ever”.
Speaking on RTE’S The Late Late Show, he also said he is worried about the extent to which migration and antimigrant feelings are becoming a bigger part of Irish politics.
He told host Patrick Kielty that while many people are welcoming refugees into their homes and people are grateful for so many international workers, the warned of others who it “seems to bring out hatred”.
He said: “People who don’t look like them, who don’t behave like them.
“That brings out a real hatred that has destroyed other countries and destroyed the politics of other countries and I really hope it doesn’t happen here.”
He added: “We need to be sensitive as to how that sounds to people, particularly people who need to come to our country and people who are people of colour who live here, they have no other home.”
Mr Varadkar, 45, said immigration is centre stage in the politics of most western countries.
He continued: “It was very much what drove the election of Donald Trump. He was going to build a wall. It didn’t work out. If you look across the water in Britain when anti-migrant sentiment rose, Brexit was a big part of that.”
Mr Varadkar revealed that he almost “chickened out” of quitting as Taoiseach the night before the announcement was made earlier this month.
He said: “I think the hardest thing was actually going through with it.
“I nearly chickened out the night before, but was definitely the right decision for me and I hope the right decision for the country too.”