Lengthy debate at council meeting prompted by motion seeking ‘detailed info’ on asylum seekers
A FIERY debate broke out at this month’s Borough District of Sligo municipal council meeting earlier this week as Mayor Declan Bree, Cllr Sinead Maguire and Cllr Tom MacSharry locked horns over a motion on immigration put forward by the latter.
During the meeting at the City Hall, Cllr MacSharry tabled a motion that read: “That Sligo Municipal District Council call for a co-ordinated approach from government, including detailed communications between central government and local government in Sligo, to include providing all local public representatives with detailed information on all persons seeking asylum to be accommodated in our local community, together with all proposals to adequately provide supports and services relating to health, education and housing.”
Mayor Bree’s proposed amendment cited a report on Refugees and Integration produced by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth which has been recently published.
Cllr MacSharry and Cllr Maguire both tabled out of order requests as they had both not seen the report. However, Mayor Bree ruled out their requests.
Cllr Maguire insisted that by doing so, Mayor Bree had been acting unfairly with the latter rejecting her claim.
Mayor Bree’s amendment on the term “detailed information for councillors” within Cllr MacSharry’s motion being removed was passed by three votes with Cllr MacSharry and Cllr Maguire abstaining.
Earlier in the debate, Cllr MacSharry stated that nationwide demand for more information on immigration was high.
Cllr MacSharry said a lot of people were afraid to raise the issue but that was not the case now.
He said: “I think the strategy adopted by the government is broken and I think that Minister Roderick O’Gorman is unfortunately out of his depth.
“There are a lot of community concerns and justifiable concerns and I just feel the councillors and local authorities were totally in the dark.”
Cllr MacSharry expressed concern at what he had read last week which outlined how €42million a month was being spent with landlords profiting as a result and what was previously student accommodation was now housing those seeking asylum.
He also cited the knock-on effect this had on Sligo’s economy stating that the loss of the hotel in Rosses Point had proved to be a major loss both economically and to the wider community.
Cllr MacSharry concluded by stating that as an estimated 20,000 people would be entering Ireland over the coming year, accommodation for them would have to be found and that councillors and councils across the land needed both resources and communication to provide this.
In response, Mayor Bree replied: “I think it is generally recognised that the government has been incompetent in terms of providing shelter for those seeking international protection and in terms of the level of communication with Councils, elected representatives and communities.
“It has also been incompetent in terms of generally supporting local authorities to deliver housing and in terms of addressing inadequacies in our health services.
“Given the fact that there has never been more money in government coffers, it beggars belief that this Fianna Faíl, Fine Gael, Green government has been incapable of delivering on its promises.
“Eight weeks ago the Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, in a Report on Refugees and Integration, made many positive recommendations and highlighted the need for the government to engage with local public representatives and community leaders to deliver information relating to accommodating asylum seekers, so as to counter misinformation and more so the disinformation being spread by the far right. I am proposing we welcome and endorse the recommendations contained in that report.
“The Committee also said inadequate service provision in housing, health, transport and education, which is a barrier to successful integration, must be addressed by the government and prevented from happening in the future.
“It referenced the need to strengthen and enforce social media regulations and community standards to counter disinformation.
“All of us are aware that the farright thrives where there is a lack of information.
“The far-right are opportunistic and quick to hitch themselves onto local concerns, often in a vacuum of accurate information. They manipulate the truth, exploit the situation for their own purposes and change their narrative to suit what is happening locally, a pattern replicated across the world.
“A classic part of their strategy is their attempts to exploit genuinely experienced hardships facing communities, such as inadequate housing, lack of public services, and poverty.
“They seek to foster competition for resources and services, and apportion blame on ‘outsiders’ and then all you hear is ‘what about our own?’.
“Their strategy of disinformation is designed to spread fear and suspicion in communities.
“Far-right extremists have been travelling the country going into communities spreading misinformation and attempting to whip up racial hatred.
“They use protests to draw people in and harden them up with more explicitly racist ideas. People who might think we should ‘look after our own first’ are fed lies about the threat that black or brown migrant men pose to Irish women, along with conspiracies about ‘military-aged men’ and a secret UN army.
“The violence and riots on the streets of Dublin in November and the thuggery outside the Dáil in October are but examples of what can happen when the far-right are not faced up to.
“There will not be one Council house completed to accommodate people on our housing list this year.
“That is not the fault of asylum seekers, it is the fault of the Fianna Faíl Minister for Housing, and his colleagues.
“There will not be one additional bed provided in Sligo University Hospital this year. That is not the fault of asylum seekers, that is the fault of the Fianna Faíl Minister for Health and his colleagues
“The reality is that this government’s failings have provided fertile ground for the far-right to stoke racial hatred.
“We certainly now do need a co-ordinated approach from government including detailed communications between central government and local government as the motion as the motion refers to.
“I am somewhat unsure about the reference to public representatives being provided with ‘detailed information’ on all persons seeking asylum. I presume that is information which complies with the General Data Protection Regulations, which I cannot imagine being too detailed.
“We certainly need additional resources from Government and I welcome the news that the Cabinet will be meeting later this week to approve a second round of Community Recognition Funding for communities where asylum seekers are accommodated.
“Sligo received a significant amount of this funding, in excess of € 1.2 million a number of months ago – in the first round – for improvement works at the Sports Complex, O’Boyle Park, Doorly Park, Ransboro Community Park, the Strandhill Surf Centre, Rosses Point Community Park, Gibraltar, Stenson Park in Carraroe and numerous other worthwhile projects.
“This funding is being allocated in recognition of efforts made by communities to accommodate refugees and I expect that every councillor will be putting forward projects for funding when the second round is announced shortly.
“In conclusion, I would point out that when I was elected Mayor I said how proud I am to be part of the Sligo community, a community which has a long and proud tradition of being warm, compassionate and empathic to those in need.
“We have welcomed many new migrants from Eastern Europe, including Poland, Lithuania, the Czech Republic and from Asia, from Africa and further afield who have come seeking employment and a new way of life. We have also offered our solidarity to those seeking international protection and to refugees fleeing war.
“In every society there have always been attempts to scapegoat minorities, whether emigrants, travellers or religious minorities.
“I am proud of the fact that the vast majority of citizens in this community have, in keeping with tradition, responded positively to those from other lands who have taken up residence or sought protection in our community.”
Mayor Bree then tabled his amendment to Cllr MacSharry’s motion. It read: “And further we welcome and endorse the recommendations contained in the recent report on Refugees and Integration produced by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.”
With the proposed motion open to the floor, Cllr Gino O’Boyle remarked that “both the Dáil and the Seanad had its fair share of landlords who had their own financial interests”.
Cllr Maguire commented that while she concurred with most of what had been said, she took issue with the line that read, “detailed information” saying it was not appropriate and request its deletion from the motion.
Cllr MacSharry had no objection to the deletion but clarified that he was raising concerns that constituents had come to him with and was seeking more information on the subject.
Both Cllr Maguire and Cllr MacSharry proposed that the motion be deferred given the amendment was based on a report they had not seen.
However, Mayor Bree argued that he was “adhering to standing orders” and rejected their request with the motion being passed in a vote taken soon after.