{"id":636009,"date":"2026-08-14T01:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T01:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/636009\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T01:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T01:29:11","slug":"nolan-govt-locking-tds-out-of-community-immigration-discussions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/636009\/","title":{"rendered":"NOLAN: Govt locking TDs out of Community immigration discussions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Independent TD Carol Nolan is strongly criticising the Department of Justice\u2019s Community Engagement Team for what she terms is its decision to \u201cdeliberately exclude elected representatives from the upcoming Community Dialogue on immigration meeting in Offaly on 4 September.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Offaly TD She went on to describe the approach, which is set to be replicated across all local authority areas as \u201ca deeply troubling attempt to manage or even manipulate public opinion while sidelining democratic accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Department\u2019s own update provided to Deputy Nolan confirms that:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Community Engagement Team intends to meet with community representatives in Offaly on the 4th of September.\u201d \u201cThe Community Engagement Team will then be available to provide a briefing to you and other local elected representatives\u2026 if requested\u2026\u201d \u201cThe Community Engagement Team is working with the Local Authority in Offaly to identify community participants to attend the dialogue in your area through existing structures, including the Public Participation Network (PPN):<\/p>\n

\u201cThis structure is not accidental. It is a conscious decision to keep political representatives out of the room while sensitive immigration and integration issues are being discussed. The Government is thereby locking elected representatives out of a process that will directly shape national migration policy. Indeed, the briefing note I received explicitly states that these meetings will be used \u201cto inform the ongoing development of the national Migration and Integration Strategy, to be published in 2026,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are hand\u2011selecting participants, holding a closed meeting, and only afterwards offering to brief TDs \u2018if requested.\u2019 That is absolutely outrageous. It amounts to nothing less than a controlled exercise designed to produce a pre\u2011approved narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deputy Nolan said the exclusion of TDs and councillors is especially unacceptable given the scale of migration\u2011related pressures:<\/p>\n

\u201cCommunities in Offaly and elsewhere are dealing with real, immediate pressures such as housing shortages, GP capacity, school places. Yet the Government wants to discuss immigration and integration behind closed doors, without the people who are elected to represent those communities. It is totally unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also highlighted the contradiction between the Government\u2019s public messaging and its actual practice:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Department claims these dialogues are \u2018inclusive\u2019 and \u2018accessible\u2019. But they are not public, and they exclude elected representatives. That is a contradiction so stark it borders on deception.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deputy Nolan said she will not allow democratic oversight to be reduced to an optional afterthought:<\/p>\n

\u201cI will not accept a situation where TDs are briefed only after the Department has shaped the discussion, filtered the feedback, and prepared its preferred version of events. Elected representatives must be involved from the outset not after the script has been written.\u201d<\/p>\n

She confirmed she has written to the Community Engagement Team seeking an immediate explanation and full clarity on the rationale for excluding political representatives:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis process must be opened up. We are all sick and tired of the political choreography on this issue,\u201d Deputy Nolan concluded.<\/p>\n

The Department of Justice said that \u201cbuilding on the work of the Community Engagement Team to date, the Department is convening a facilitated dialogue with community stakeholders in each of the 31 local authority areas to hear views, experiences, and concerns of community representatives regarding migration and integration.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese dialogue meetings respond to Programme for Government commitments on consultation around migration, and to feedback from community leaders across the country over recent years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are not public or political meetings, but inclusive, accessible discussions with community representatives that will inform Government policy, strategy, and communications on these important topics,\u201d they said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA report of each dialogue will be shared with participants to validate the discussion. A synthesised report of all the dialogues will be published by the Department later in the year, when all sessions are complete. A values-based framework will inform the dialogues in line with the Values and Principles for Collaboration and Partnership Working with the Community and Voluntary Sector.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Independent TD Carol Nolan is strongly criticising the Department of Justice\u2019s Community Engagement Team for what she terms…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,268775,13169,18,268776,19,17,6395],"class_list":["post-636009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-community-discussions","tag-department-of-justice","tag-eire","tag-elected-representatives","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-migration"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117091275008633824","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636009","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=636009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}