TD told to retract his ‘disruptive Dubs’ slur

A FINE Gael TD has been asked to publicly apologise after suggesting that some Dublin families rehoused in the midlands are disrupting local communities.

The comments of Longford-Westmeath TD James Bannon came after it emerged that the Department of the Environment is considering relocating hundreds of homel ess Dublin families to vacant houses in rural Ireland.

Mr Bannon suggested that his community would suffer if the proposed scheme came into effect.

He said: ‘Unnamed officials in the Department of the Environment are reported [to be] considering visiting further deprivation on my area, by bringing possibly more deprived people into the area.

‘We already have very high waiting lists for social housing in Longford and in Westmeath. We have families that are waiting two and three years.

‘People would feel aggrieved if we started to take in people from other local authorities that fail to adequately provide housing for their own people and deprive those people of houses.’

Mr Bannon said his constituents had been ‘disrupted’ by the ‘drinking’ and ‘infighting’ of some ‘dysfunctional families’ moved from Dublin to Longford in past relocation schemes.

He said: ‘There are problem families that [have caused] hardship and social disruption in the past.’

‘I don’t get involved in that sort of thing myself,’ he told the Mail. ‘You would hear it from constituents that come into your office from time to time. I don’t see it first hand.’

However, former Dublin Lord Mayor Christy Burke described the Fine Gael backbencher’s comments as ‘absolutely a disgrace’. He added that Mr Bannon was ‘stirring up a fire’.

He said: ‘I would ask him to apologise or withdraw the remarks. It’s politics we’re in. God knows, the country has been crucified on austerity and everything else, without pointing fingers and creating flames.’

Mr Burke also maintained that, for the Fine Gael TD to ‘point the finger at Dubs’ who have already been rehoused in Longford and Westmeath, was ‘character assassination’.

‘All I ever hear is compliments about the Dubs.

‘If Deputy Bannon is just grabbing a headline and assuming from what he heard in a constituency office, he should take it up with the local superintendent,’ Mr Burke added.

Sinn Féin also weighed in, with Councillor Cathleen Carney Boud labelling Mr Bannon’s comments ‘deeply offensive and unhelpful’.

Ms Boud said: ‘There are plenty of good families who may already have connections in rural towns and would love to make a fresh start and be an asset to their new community.

But Mr Bannon stood by his statements. He said: ‘The failure of Dublin should not be Longford’s or Westmeath’s problem.

‘In the past, people who came out of cities have caused problems in rural areas. I don’t think they should be exporting their problem.’

The Department of the Environment yesterday stressed that ‘no decision has been made’. A spokesman said: ‘Homelessness is a national issue, and it has to be considered as a national issue. This [scheme] is one of the things that’s being discussed.

‘It’s only being teased out as an issue at the moment.’

‘We have very high waiting lists’