Independent TD Mattie McGrath has said that “the dogs in the street knew immigration was a huge problem ahead of the government, who didn’t want to know” as a new snapshot poll found the issue has leapfrogged housing in voter concerns ahead of the election on June 7th.
According to the latest Irish Times/Ipsos B&A Snapshot poll, “the research shows that the vast majority of respondents who cited immigration and housing as the issues they noticed, have a negative view of the Government’s performance”.
The poll shows that 29 per cent of respondents said that immigration was the issue they noticed the Government doing or saying something about in the past month. This was far ahead of housing (19 per cent), which has been the number one issue for most of the time since Ipsos B&A began measuring this data last summer, the paper reports.
The snapshot poll found that “29 per cent of respondents said that immigration was the issue they noticed the Government doing or saying something about in the past month” and that this was far ahead of housing” which came in at 19 percent.
The prominence of the immigration issue has surged by 17 points this month, up from 12 per cent in April. Housing remains largely steady, down by just two points. Housing has consistently been in the top two spots, whereas immigration rose to prominence in the second half of last year.
The survey finds that the vast majority of comments made by participants are negative towards the Government’s performance. On immigration, just 14 per cent of comments were positive, with 85 per cent negative.
On housing, the responses were even worse for the Government. Nine out of ten comments (90 per cent) were negative, with just 9 per cent positive.
Mattie McGrath, who is an independent TD for Tipperary and who has been an outspoken critic of the government’s immigration policy, told Gript that the poll should come as “no surprise to anyone except those who are still letting NGOs decide policy”.
He said the Rural Independents had been been telling the government for “18 months or more” that this “was a huge issue”.
“The dogs in the street knew immigration was a huge problem ahead of the government, who didn’t want to know” he said. “They are completely out of touch with the people, and it looks like they – and the left Opposition – will see the result of ignoring the voters on June 7th.”
He said that, “just as in the March referendums”, the government had allowed its decisions to be influenced by “legions of NGOs who are funded by the taxpayer through the same government and whose jobs rely on extending immigration”.
“When we raised it in the Dáil, we were attacked,” he said. “When the Rural Independents forced a debate on immigration, the government TDs refused to engage and then the left and the far-left attacked us on behalf of the government. There were fewer than 10 TDs in the Dáil during the debate in December – on an issue that is now a top priority for voters.”
“Now we see that what was unmentionable previously is a new tough line for Fine Gael,” he said. “Now Harris and his candidates are getting it in the neck at the doors, they’re talking tough, and Sinn Féin are flip flopping.”
During the debate last December, the group of six TDs in the Rural Independent Group argued for a cap on the number of asylum seekers, and said there was “a chasm” between voters and the Government in regard to “unsustainable” migration.
However, Labour’s justice spokesman Aodhán Ó Ríordáin described the group’s motion was “lowest common denominator politics from a lowest common denominator political group” – while Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns said the the Rural Independents “should be ashamed of themselves”.
Sinn Féin’s Pa Daly said that: “Disinformation linking asylum seekers to criminality is irresponsible and unacceptable.”
Earlier this month, the Mattie McGrath was described as “Trumpian” by an Taoiseach, Simon Harris, when he accused party leaders of shutting down debate.
“Taoiseach, I’m addressing you but I’m addressing my remarks to all the party leaders, who eventually, finally, have woken up,” he said.
“They were part of the problem all along [in] the last 12 months – not allowing debate, not wanting debate, shutting down debate, and name-calling people who were looking for debate [such as] myself and my colleagues in the Rural Independents,” Deputy McGrath said.
The Independent TD also accused RTE of being a “mouthpiece” for government, as he claimed ordinary people had been consistently ignored on the migration issue.
“But now, because it’s arrived in the leafy suburbs of Dublin 4, where they’re putting up tents and fencing to keep people out,” he said.
“When ordinary people in Rosscrea, when ordinary people in Newtownmountkennedy, and all over the country, in Clonmel now, attempted to have a protest – peaceful protest – and put up some small barricades (not barricades as such like you have, the power of the State – they were demonised and blaggarded and condemned by everybody here, and indeed your mouthpieces in RTE and others. So now you have it, you won’t have a debate.
In response, Taoiseach Simon Harris said it was “not legitimate” for members of the House to say things that “are completely offensive, and Trumpian, in fact.”
“When you say things like ‘mouthpieces in media,’ when you say things like ‘there hasn’t been a debate in this House,’ that’s just untrue, Deputy.