A Clare TD has told the Dáil that a Ukrainian who is in Ireland just three months but has been charged with ‘his eighth crime’ is “holidaying here and on a crime spree at the expense of the taxpayer”.
Cathal Crowe TD said that while he would defend the rights of asylum seekers and beneficiaries of temporary protection – a status automatically afforded to persons from Ukraine since the war – he believed that the situation was “an abuse of a right”.
“I want to ask the Taoiseach about a situation in the mid-west at the moment,” he told the Dáil yesterday. “I am one of the first people who would be out defending the rights of people to come here under international protection and beneficiaries of temporary protection coming from the war in Ukraine. They have a right to be safe and a right to be looked after.”
“However, I want to tell the Taoiseach about someone who has been in this country three months and who at the weekend committed his eighth crime. He has been charged with his eighth crime. This is a man from Ukraine. Many people have that right, and I would defend the right of people to be here, but this is somebody holidaying here and on a crime spree at the expense of the taxpayer,” he said.
“We have to give space to the criminal justice system, but for someone flaunting our laws, abusing communities and being a thug, what mechanism is there to send him back? I think he has lost all right to be here in this country. The quicker we get him back the better,” the Fianna Fáil TD continued.
“People have a right to be here, but this is not a right. This is an abuse of a right. This is criminality,” he said.
An Ceann Comhairle, Verona Murphy, interrupted to say: “I do not believe it is necessary to name the nationality in our forum. I just do not think it is in any way helpful.”
“How else do I convey a situation, a Cheann Comhairle?” Deputy Crowe responded.
When An Ceann Comhairle said that he had “conveyed it well without having to name any nationality,” Deputy Crowe said: “I respectfully disagree. I have a representational role here for my constituency.”
In response to Deputy Crowe’s question, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that the Minister for Justice has powers of deportation.
“More generally, my understanding is that the Minister for Justice has powers, and the Deputy should raise the case with the Minister because the Minister for Justice has the capacity to deport people who have been convicted by the criminal justice system of crimes,” he said.
“I understand quite a number of deportations have happened in respect of others, but, again, that is all subject to clarity. That is my understanding, and I encourage the Deputy to raise the specific issue with the Minister for Justice.”