As is the case in many other towns and suburbs throughout the country, Cllr Aidan Mullins has been hearing from his constituents in Laois about the growing number of people being accommodated in the county who have arrived in Ireland claiming asylum.
He has, however, been one of just a handful of representatives to raise the issue publicly, and his forthrightness on the harm being caused by uncontrolled immigration is in stark contrast with the position of his party, Sinn Féin, who have insisted that no cap can be placed on the numbers coming here.
Those numbers are astonishing. In the middle of our own housing crisis, with record numbers of Irish people homeless, the government’s failure to correctly monitor those entering the country – often with fake passports or no documentation – has led to a situation where we have almost 24,000 people living in accommodation provided by the State for those who claim to be asylum seekers..
That number has jumped 26% since January of this year, by the way, when some 19,000 claimants were being accommodated.
In fact, the numbers being housed in the asylum system has more than tripled in two years, up from 7,244 in December 2021 to around 24,000 at the end of September 2023.
On top of that, some 91,000 Ukrainians have arrived since February 2022, yet the government refuses to put a limit on how many people the State – creaking at the seams when it comes comes to housing and services – will take in.
Little wonder then that Cllr Mullins, in passing on the anger being felt by local people, gave such a strong statement to the County Council chamber last week.
According to Laois Today, he began by criticising the minimum targets on social housing being set by the Government for County Laois. “38 units over five years – to me, that’s an admission of failure by the Department. There’s a large cohort of people being ignored here, and to suggest that 38 units is sufficient is just laughable, it really is,” he said.
“We’re clapping ourselves on the back for constructing 42 modular homes in Rathdowney for people coming from Ukraine – and I’ve said all along, I support that, because that is an emergency situation.
“But the Government is refusing to call our housing situation ‘an emergency,’ they call it ‘a crisis,’ because if they call it an emergency it’s going to trigger a different response.
“So, they’re cowardly, running away from it; it’s an emergency – except when we’re talking about our own people on the housing lists.
“Then it’s a crisis, and you deal with it differently, so you can’t bypass planning laws and build modular homes – and I do not understand why we’re not doing that here.
The Sinn Féín Cllr, who is based in Portarlington, said he didn’t care “what anyone says to me about this” or if he was accused of “creating divisions”.
“And I don’t care if I’m excoriated or somebody jumps all over me for saying this, because there’s an issue here that we need to confront – and while a lot of people are saying it, most people will not speak it.
“It’s a question of when we hit our capacity to handle people coming into this country, whether they’re refugees or asylum seekers. “And whether it’s today or in a year’s time, the time does come when you hit your capacity. There is a limit – I think we’ve hit that limit.
“The Department has commenced engaging with the Council under which 102 Syrian refugees will be relocated and housed in County Laois next year.
“Where are we going to house them? But I guarantee you, they will be housed.
“And then we wonder why somebody comes to say ‘how come there’s an arrangement for people coming into the country, as opposed to people on the housing list. That’s the reality.
“You might not be happy with me saying this, but I get it daily.
He then told the chamber: “Portarlington is a dumping ground for asylum seekers, that’s what I’m being told.”
“The local hotel, closed down pubs, closed hair dressers, the developers buying up private houses and outbidding locals trying to get on the property market.
“They’re in private houses in estates around the town; it’s been saturated – and I don’t care who comes down on me for saying this – that is a fact.
And he argued that a Sunday Business Post opinion poll on the issue showed “over 75% of those polled felt that we had taken too many refugees”.
“So it’s not me being radical here or far right, people are looking around and they’re seeing the impact of the huge numbers coming in on a daily and weekly basis,” he said.
Cllr Mullins had a particularly strong statement to make about those coming to Ireland from Georgia, which is not experiencing war, to claim asylum.
“Some say (certain) countries of origin shouldn’t even be processed, like Georgia. There’s Georgians in Portarlington in emergency accommodation and they’re working full-time.
“We’re paying for their accommodation, we’re feeding them, we’re giving them medical cards – and they’re working full time. It’s not on.
“I’m tired of people coming to me complaining about this, and nobody is voicing their concerns. Nobody.”
It is to his credit that he is representing the views of his constituents and speaking his mind on this issue. Yet Laois Today reported that “there was silence in the chamber as neither Council staff nor the other Councillors present addressed Cllr Mullins’ concerns”.
There was also silence from the Sinn Féin press office when I emailed them with queries about this article. It seems to me that, while Cllr Mullins and some few more in the party are raising the entirely valid concerns being expressed by their constituents, it may be that the party strategists are deliberately saying nothing at all.
Many of the areas which have seen sustained local opposition to the government’s arrogance in imposing migrant centres on communities are also areas where Sinn Féin tend to poll strongly.
And a recent Business Post poll shows that 83% of Sinn Féin supporters believe that Ireland is taking in too many refugees – significantly higher than the average of 75% recorded in the poll.
Yet, the few public responses given by Sinn Féin mostly show the party is seriously at odds with its own voters. Their TDs have responded to local protests by saying no-one could have a veto on who came to live in their area, for example
They’ve condemned local opposition, with Kerry TD, Pa Daly, reportedly facing a ‘backlash’ from voters after criticising protests at the Hotel Killarney – while also acknowledging that “there have been incidents around the town and that there are genuine fears out there”.
And when its own members objected to fast-tracking modular homes for refugees, but not for Irish people, Sinn Féin made sure those statements were removed from social media and insisted that the party supported the modular houses build.
Those party responses are usually backed up online by the type of empty sloganeering that Ógra Shinn Féin specialise in which suggests everyone who doesn’t sign up their vacuous ‘Ireland wants refugees’ slogan is a racist.
Ireland wants refugees.
Ireland doesn’t want racists.#SinÉ
— Ógra Shinn Féin (@Ogra_SF) November 22, 2022
No doubt the grown-ups in the party would advise them against coming out with that trite nonsense to the people at the doors, and that is where Sinn Féin’s consistent silence on the immigration issue as the election draws nearer gets interesting.
It’s been said, anecdotally, that Sinn Féin’s canvassers are telling voters what they think they want to hear on immigration when they go knocking on doors. If they come across voters who are upset by the chaos caused by rocketing numbers of migrants arriving, those voters are told that that practice will stop under a Sinn Féin government.
Then, while Mary Lou is telling RTÉ that “you can’t limit numbers” and that Ireland must welcome refugees, the party is also making noises to give an impression that they are on the side of the majority on the issue, when they are not.
You’ll hear Sinn Féin TDs saying that locals must be consulted (even though ‘no limit’ means migrant centres have to open anyway even if a consultation shows locals oppose it), and castigating the government for making a mess of the asylum system (even though the mess has been caused by the huge rise in numbers, and if there are ‘no limits’ then that will continue.)
This practice – talking out of both sides of your mouth – is common in politics, and Sinn Féin have long mastered the art of saying nothing when silence serves them best. Right now, as they pursue their goal of being in government, what is being said at the doors to persuade voters may be very different to what the party is saying on the airwaves.
My colleague, Matt Treacy, has previously written about the party’s duplicity in the 2004 citizenship referendum during which time he was on the party’s election directorate.
The amendment was overwhelmingly approved by the people – almost 80% who cast ballots voted Yes – despite the fact that it had been repeatedly described as “racist” referendum by the usual NGO and by Sinn Féin, with Caoimhghnín Ó Caoláin TD describing it as “dangerous, divisive and reactionary”.
“Sinn Féin will campaign vigorously for a ‘No’ vote,” he told the Dáil, accusing the government of “stirring the pot of ignorance, fear and bigotry”.
Sounds fairly familiar, doesn’t it? But what Matt Treacy revealed was that Sinn Féin knew this stance would actually go down like a lead balloon at the doors.
Local candidates who knew their areas were unenthusiastic about campaigning against the referendum, to say the least, as were most of us on the directorate. When some party members tried to push the No campaign as part of the election effort, we rebuffed them.
And when one chap who was a representative alongside the usual ragtag and bobtail on the anti-referendum campaign decided on his own initiative to have thousands of leaflets produced to be handed out centrally for local distribution by activists, they mysteriously got lost somewhere in the basement of 44 or 58 Parnell Square.
We were vindicated when the boxes were opened and papers separated and it was clear that hardly any Sinn Féin voters in the city council area had voted No. One box which I tallied in Darndale had 11 No votes, even though the vast majority of votes were cast for Sinn Féin councillor Larry O’Toole and for Mary Lou.
There is no doubting Cllr Aidan Mullins’s sincerity, nor the frustration of his constituents who increasingly feel that their concerns and their needs are being ignored by the government.
But Sinn Féin knows that votes are to be harnessed from that frustration and anger, and their aim is to get as many of their candidates across the line as possible. Their silence speaks volumes, not just about the issue, but about their understanding that the voters who are angry and upset in Laois are replicated in many other constituencies.
They are urging voters to choose Sinn Féin to effect change, but they are likely not reminding the same voters that they described the vote on the citizenship referendum as ‘racist’. Its also unlikely that they are quoting from their Plan on the Refugee Crisis where they say that “Ireland should commit to taking one refugee per every 1,000 of our population” but also that “It is important to note that Sinn Féin would not put an upper limit on it. We must not only do our fair share, but more than our fair share given our own emigrant history.”
In the upcoming debates, and on the doors, Sinn Féin should be challenged to explain their position on immigration and forced to spell out what steps they would actually take to deal with the unsustainable position the country has been placed in.
Otherwise voters may expect more of the same bad policy, with the same impact on housing, healthcare and services. They will still feel like paddy last in their own country under Sinn Féin.