As concerns continue to be voiced about the situation regarding the accommodation of refugees in Donegal – as reported by Gript in relation to the protests in Buncrana – there are contradictory claims being made about what is going on.
On Raidió na Gaeltachta’s Barrscéalta programme this morning, presenter Michelle Nic Grianna told listeners that a series of emails which had been sent to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) by both Barrscéalta and the RnaG newsroom had not even been acknowledged.
She described this as part of their having spent a week banging their heads against a wall.
Having referred to this, and a hunger strike by refugees at Loch an Iúir who are demanding to meet again with Independent Councillor Micheál Mac Giolla Easpaig who earlier in the week gave an interview to Barrscéalta in support of the refugees, Michelle put a series of questions to Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty.
Having first dismissed rumours about another site at Bun Beg, which is a bit of a red herring, Doherty said that he had spoken to Minister Roderick O’Gorman yesterday and that the Minister had told him that there were no plans to move International Protection (IPAS) applicants to Gaoth Dobhair “at this point.”
Doherty said that he had put it to O’Gorman that when refugees were landed into an area without prior communication or notice, that it will lead to problems.
He told the Minister that local people are fearful and that the lack of information contributes to this. This was similar to the point made by Sinn Féin councillor Jack Murray earlier in the week.
However, as a local resident pointed out during the week, this was slightly hypocritical on the part of Murray and other councillors as they had refused to meet with those objecting to the site.
Doherty went on to say that O’Gorman had told him that a year long contract had been signed with King Accommodation Services, based in Monaghan.
This led to Michelle informing him, for his own information, that Barrscéalta had contacted King Accommodation Services and that a company representative had told them that they were not providing accommodation for any refugees in Donegal.
Doherty said that O’Gorman had told them that King Accommodation had four people employed in the Loch an Iúir premises. He went on to say that there were major questions over all of this and again referred to the problems caused when a small community is confronted with this in the absence of communication and information.
That, of course, is exactly the point that has been made by communities in Kerry, Kildare, Wicklow, Longford, Laois, Dublin and elsewhere.
And what was the response of Doherty’s party, Sinn Féin, when local people were upset at not being consulted? Well, you will recall that it was to criticise the protestors and insist that they were being used by or actively involved in everyone’s favourite bogeypersons the ‘far right’.
Naturally, Pearse was careful to end by stating that no such thing ought to be said of his own constituents.
They are not racist or right wing, which no doubt they are not – no more so than anyone in East Wall or Greystones or Finglas is – in so far as those terms are deployed as a means to shut people up.
Níl mé cinnte cád is brí le NIMBYISM as Gaeilge, ach seo daoibh. Pearse an Dhá Thaobh, arís