Cork based Councillor Ken O’Flynn has expressed concern over what he says is a two tier system operating among vulnerable groups in Ireland.
Speaking to Kieran Cuddihy on NewsTalk in what was a times a heated exchange, O’Flynn said some of this constituents have “No access to local doctors” and that they “are waiting for GPs”
Referring to the large influx of people from overseas seeking refugee status in Ireland, he expressed concern about the amount of people who have GP visit cards “handed to them” when resources are already stretched.
The said many locals have expressed their frustration at the situation to him and that a woman recently approached him in a supermarket telling him that she was currently housing her daughter, her husband, and two children in a spare room and living room.
Referring to the government’s promise to financially support anyone who takes in a refugee, the woman said that she wasn’t being ‘handed €800 a month’ to keep her daughter’s homeless family ‘off the streets.’
Councillor O’Flynn said, “I think the difficulty there is that people feel, and rightly so, that the government has an open door system.. is treating one set of people one way and another set of people another way” he said.
He said he ‘has a situation’ where one young man living in sheltered accommodation told him about a two tier system operating within the facility.
O’Flynn related that the young man shares his accommodation mostly with people “who have refugee status”, but that he was not entitled to ‘go down stairs and have breakfast, lunch, or dinner’ as meals are only provided to those claiming international protection.
Kieran Cuddihy admonished O’Flynn for not telling the homeless man that he has more rights that refugees saying,
“You let that man saunter off thinking Ken agrees with me, these bloody foreigners have more rights that I do in my own country” later adding “you didn’t think to point out that he has far more rights and entitlements”.
O’Flynn countered that he was “not going to tell somebody that they’re wrong when they’re telling me a fact”.
“The man in the room next door is being fed three times a day and he is not”, he said, later adding that “people feel let down by the government”.
“When you start hearing that on the ground from genuine people, that they feel aggrieved and that they feel let down, I can understand where people are coming from” he said.
“There’s a disparity with how people feel they’re being treated in homeless services, and how our own homeless people are being treated” he said
“I’m dealing everyday myself with medical cards and medical card requests being turned down” he said continuing, “people are saying to me how is it somebody can come into the country and get a medical card handed to them immediately and I can’t get one for my child, or for my mother, or for myself?”
He said “I have somebody at the moment who’s on palliative care” adding that he had previously spoken to their consultant.
O’Flynn said he was fighting to get a medical card for this individual.
He highlighted how people feel aggrieved and annoyed at the situation the government has put them in, adding that he was happy to help Ukrainians fleeing war but that those in need from our own country should be treated equally.
He said the support from the Irish people towards Ukrainians “has been huge” highlighting the fundraising efforts and donations given.
He said that “when a state is putting people under pressure, people that are in financial pressure, people that are in homeless services, people that feel that they’re not being listened to by the state, and they see something else happening for somebody else it’s very difficult for them, so I can understand the upset and perturbation”.