Independent TD, Carol Nolan, has called for government TDs to apologise to communities who have suffered because of the “train-wreck” of immigration policy, following what she described as a u-turn after Tánaiste Simon Harris said yesterday that the asylum system was not working.
The Offaly TD was scathing on what she described as the “government’s immigration u-turn” and called for “an apology to impacted communities”.
Deputy Nolan described remarks by Tánaiste Simon Harris that Ireland’s asylum seeker system “is not working” and that the Government should reconsider existing policies “in a very serious way” as an unspoken admission by him that “hubris and contempt have been allowed to shape the states response to unprecedented levels of illegal immigration rather than respect for the wishes of the majority who have consistently called for the brakes to be applied.”
Deputy Nolan said that she and a handful of other Oireachtas members will take no pleasure in the admission by the Tánaiste, despite being “thoroughly vindicated on almost every point of concern I have raised on this area of government policy over the last number of years”.
In 2022, Nolan was sharply criticised in the Dáíl by then Minister for Housing, Darragh O’Brien of Fianna Fáil when she asked if an assessment had been carried out by the government regarding the number of refugees arriving and how that might “impact the Government’s ability to deliver services, including housing, to those who already live here?”.
In response Darragh O’Brien said that Nolan was seeking a “cap on immigration and a cap on asylum into this country” and that her question risked “undermining social cohesion”.
“Let’s be clear. I’m calling it. That’s what you’re calling for. We will not support that,” he said in what was seen as a testy exchange.
Deputy Nolan said today that people who objected to the current “train-wreck” policy were previously described as “far-right and racist”.
“The fact of the matter is this; communities the length and breadth of this country have suffered for years because of the determination of government parties, alongside the majority of those in so-called opposition, including Sinn Fein, and their NGO allies, to frame anyone who called out this train-wreck for what it is, as far-right and racist.”
“It is that kind of cowardice masquerading as compassion that has led us to this point,” Deputy Nolan said.
“What are we are seeing now is that the obvious collapse of the asylum system has forced a measure of self-reflection when it was more or less unavoidable,” she added.
To my mind the Tánaiste, the Government and indeed Sinn Fein and others, would do well to get down on their knees and apologise to the people of this country for their full-throated support of not merely dangerous, but stupid and costly immigration policies,” concluded Deputy Nolan.
Yesterday, Tánaiste Simon Harris in response to questioning from Gript’s Ben Scallan, said that the migration numbers were “too high”, and that the government needed to listen to the people of the country.