{"id":635435,"date":"2026-08-13T18:06:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T18:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/635435\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T18:06:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T18:06:21","slug":"fianna-fail-politician-slams-political-correctness-on-migration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/635435\/","title":{"rendered":"Fianna F\u00e1il politician slams political correctness on migration"},"content":{"rendered":"

A government politician has said that Ireland suffered from trying to \u201csatisfy everybody\u201d on migration, describing past policies of housing migrants in fields as \u201cutter madness.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

In an interview with Gript this week, following a Monday appearance on Midlands103 radio regarding the failed Lissywollen accommodation centre in Westmeath, a Fianna F\u00e1il councillor stated that the State needs a \u201croot and branch review\u201d of its approach to asylum seekers.<\/p>\n

Westmeath Cllr. Aengus O\u2019Rourke said that previous plans to house migrants in tents were a \u201cmad idea from the very start.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was also critical of former Integration Minister and Green Party leader Roderic O\u2019Gorman.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am personally very frustrated about the lack of interest by anybody in what the state may have lost or spent or both in terms of the mad decision by Roderic O\u2019Gorman to shoehorn 1400 single men into a field in the heart of Athlone town, which was a mad idea from the very start,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it has cost the state millions, and no questions asked.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Rourke noted that a broader review of the accommodation system was necessary, praising the recent change in tone from Justice Minister Helen McEntee and Taoiseach Simon Harris, saying that others were \u201cafraid\u201d to speak with such clarity previously.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Really we have] to look at what our resources are, what have we a capacity for in terms of dealing with the migration issue and how do we properly accommodate those who are here legally and who have the documentation to back up their reasons for being here,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who have no reason to be here and who managed to get to the country either as a third stop or a fourth stop or via the North of Ireland or however else they managed to get here\u2026 well they should be returned to where they came from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Addressing the issue of political correctness and a lack of clarity in political discourse, O\u2019Rourke said the country had failed to look at the situation realistically.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026That\u2019s what we suffered from I suppose post-Covid and the onset of the migration situation, it\u2019s like we were trying to be all things to all men and women,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhereas without taking a cold hard look at the situation in a realistic manner we were trying to just satisfy everybody and every country.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on to say that politicians need to be more forthright with the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to just bloody well speak in more plain English and be honest with the people,\u201d he remarked.<\/p>\n

Turning his attention to the political opposition, O\u2019Rourke criticised left-wing parties for their stance on the migration debate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think the Left have been lost on the issue really,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been floundering to find their own position on it, and I think perhaps they\u2019re still living in a world where they feel they need to satisfy everybody.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t ride every horse in the Grand National. But I think that the Left seek to sit on the safest places on the fence, and that\u2019s not how you run a country. You need to be honest with the people, you need to call it as it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Rourke also confirmed that the Department of Justice will reinstate the Lissywollen site in Athlone to its original condition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had removed all the temporary tents but they had left the land with hard stands and concrete and plumbing and trenches so it was very much a different site to what it was when they got it,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we pushed through our planning enforcement in Westmeath County Council that they reinstate the land and the Department of Justice have confirmed that they\u2019re going to start a process now of reinstatement which will take three months.\u201d<\/p>\n

The controversy in Westmeath stems from a failed bid by the State to fast-track a large accommodation centre in the county, which was extensively covered by Gript.<\/p>\n

The development was successfully challenged in the High Court by local politicians, including Paul Hogan, John Dolan, Frankie Keena, and O\u2019Rourke.<\/p>\n

The site had seen millions of euro of public money spent on legal battles, temporary tents, and other works before the project was halted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A government politician has said that Ireland suffered from trying to \u201csatisfy everybody\u201d on migration, describing past policies…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[83593,4391,79,18,19,56,17,6395],"class_list":["post-635435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-asylum","tag-ben-scallan","tag-business","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-immigration","tag-ireland","tag-migration"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117089533575447831","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}