Left-wing Opposition leaders have made renewed criticisms of T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris, claiming remarks he made about migration numbers in Ireland being too high.<\/p>\n
Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns accused the Government of playing politics \u201cstraight out of the Farage playbook\u201d, after the T\u00e1naiste\u2019s comments on immigrant numbers.<\/p>\n
In the D\u00e1il she said the Government was ratcheting up its use of inflammatory language to stoke further fear. <\/p>\n
Pointing to the attack on the accommodation centre in Drogheda Ms Cairns said it was a violent attack \u201con vulnerable people which could easily have led to children being killed\u201d. <\/p>\n
During leaders\u2019 questions Ms Cairns said Mr Harris spoke about migration numbers being too high just days after anti-immigrant rioting at Citywest.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then, after the despicable Ipas attack on Friday night, the Government moved immediately to talking about charging those in direct provision for accommodation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along with this the \u201ccallous proposal to reduce accommodation entitlements for people from Ukraine to just 30 days has also just been signed off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Cairns said there had been 30 attacks in recent years on Ipas centres or proposed accommodation centres.<\/p>\n
She asked \u201cwhere is the emergency stand-alone meeting on safety concerns for people in international protection? Where is the emergency meeting about increasing levels of violent hate in our communities? And where is the emergency meeting to discuss how to counter the dangers she\u2019s rise being peddled by far right agitators?\u201d<\/p>\n
Labour leader Ivana Bacik said any flaws in the asylum system were the Government\u2019s responsibility and that the Government was conflating \u201cimmigration with criminality\u201d. This rhetoric \u201ccan contribute to an environment where violence can develop. And so too can irresponsible rhetoric that blames the housing crisis or the lack of public services on immigrants.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added \u201cregrettably, all three largest parties in this house, Fianna F\u00e1il, Fine Gael and Sinn F\u00e9in have recently issued communications that have lent into anti=migrant sentiment\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said it was wrong of the T\u00e1naiste to say Ireland\u2019s migration numbers are too high. \u201cHe implied that people facing deportation make up a significant proportion of Ireland\u2019s inward migration. And of course, this was wrong. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a slip of the tongue, though\u201d, Fine Gael colleagues have since repeated it and the Taoiseach had backed his comments.<\/p>\n
But replying for the Government Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers rejected the claims and told Ms Bacik and Ms Cairns \u201cyou\u2019re conflating lots of different things, unfairly and inappropriately\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Chambers said everyone in Government condemned the attack and that many migrants made a huge contribution to Irish society. He added that \u201cwe should be able to assess overall migration policy continuously and evaluate it, to look at European norms\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan \u201cis doing everything in his engagement with colleagues across the European Union to look at the wider incentives and disincentives and the push and the pull factors that\u2019s a normal part of migration policy across Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said they needed an honest evaluation of that \u201cso we\u2019re able to respond to the overall numbers that are coming into our country. <\/p>\n
He said \u201cwe need to have an honest debate about that, and I\u2019m clear in my absolute condemnation of what\u2019s happened\u201d.<\/p>\n
Speaking earlier on Tuesday Mr Harris said he \u201cabsolutely\u201d stood over his comments which have drawn criticism over the last week.<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters in advance of a Cabinet meeting Mr Harris said: \u201cThe Irish people want to know that their Government is putting in place a system [for immigration] that is fair and firm.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThere are parts of our public services that would fall over were it not for people coming to our country and contributing.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he added: \u201cYou know what is also a good thing?… having a system that has rules that are applied, making sure that there\u2019s a common sense and a social cohesion element to all of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
[\u00a0Forty-five adults and seven children deported from Ireland to GeorgiaOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n The Fine Gael leader said there was \u201ca limit\u201d to what Ireland could do for immigrants.<\/p>\n Simon Harris<\/a> said that recent data from the Economic and Social Research Institute<\/a> shows that the population was growing \u201cway faster than baseline projections\u201d and he said this has an impact on public services and housing.<\/p>\n \u201cThe conversation about migration isn\u2019t just about international protection, it\u2019s about our population growth in general,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cRoughly speaking, for every 10,000 [who] people come into our country, around 3,000 more homes are needed.<\/p>\n \u201cSo let\u2019s actually have a rational, calm informed debate that doesn\u2019t seek to label people, shout them down, box them into certain positions.\u201d<\/p>\n On Tuesday Labour TD Ged Nash accused Mr Harris of \u201cirresponsible comments\u201d last week and claimed they were \u201cclearly a response to the disappointing, as he would see, performance of Fine Gael in the [presidential] election\u201d.<\/p>\n