Councillor condemned over migrant comments slams ‘irresponsible’ border policies

A Fianna Fail councillor criticised by Tanaiste Micheal Martin for his comments on the Government’s immigration strategy has accused his party leader of presiding over “irresponsible open border policies”.

Noel Thomas claimed Ireland has been “flooded” with migrants since the outbreak of the Ukraine war.

Mr Thomas said he has not been formally told by Fianna Fail if he will face disciplinary action for his recent remarks but, asked if he wants to remain in the party, he claimed he is more entitled to be a member than Mr Martin is.

Mr Martin has publicly criticised Mr Thomas and fellow Fianna Fail councillor Seamus Walsh over comments they made following a suspected arson attack on a disused hotel in Rosscahill, Co Galway, where 70 asylum seekers were due to be accommodated.

Mr Thomas said in the aftermath that he did not condone the weekend fire at the Ross Lake House Hotel, but said Ireland should stop accepting asylum seekers because “the inn is full”.

Mr Walsh criticised Government policy on migrants as “senseless”.

On Tuesday, Mr Martin said he had spoken to Mr Thomas and had tried to contact Mr Walsh to make clear he disagreed with their remarks.

On Wednesday, Mr Thomas said he told his party leader in a phone call on Sunday evening that he is not happy with what he is doing to the country.

“I say the inn is full because it’s full because of irresponsible open border policies that this Government have had in place,” he told RTE Radio One.

Responding to the councillor’s comments, Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said she does not know “anybody who is in favour of open borders – I’m certainly not”.

“We have a rules-based system and you can have a view as to its efficiency, how it’s resourced, how it might change, but you shouldn’t pretend that it doesn’t exist,” she said.

She said the Government had made “a huge error” in not consulting more thoroughly with communities and that there was “anxiety and angst and a feeling of being disrespected and ignored” in communities as a result.

Mr Thomas again criticised the decision to move migrants to the hotel in Galway.

“The only situation where I can imagine that it may be OK to cram people into a hotel or similar building would be where the hotel is located in an urban setting, with all the services within walking distance,” he said.

“And even at that, that type of accommodation should be a very temporary solution and that should only be used for a couple of weeks max, until proper humane accommodation can be provided in a way that can integrate people into their new communities,” he added.

The councillor said a longer consultation period with the local community would not have made the proposal any more acceptable.

“Even if this was a 10-year consultation period, it would still be wrong to cram four people into a room together in a remote building like the Ross Lake Hotel,” he said.

Earlier in the week, Mr Thomas spoke of local people’s fear of the unknown as he referred to crimes involving migrants.

When it was put to him on Wednesday that Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has said there is no evidence of crime rates increasing in areas where international protection claimants are housed, the councillor aimed a broadside at the police chief, calling him a “man who doesn’t have the faith of any of his own members in the Garda”.

Restating his criticism of government migration policy, he added: “In relation to the leaders we have in this country, and our legal obligation to take people in, as far as I’m concerned, it is my opinion that, if you’re going to have leaders in this country, it is their legal obligation to look after our country first.

“That’s what their legal obligation should be. And they should step up to the plate and they should stop what is happening, because it is inhumane.”

Asked if he is going to stay in Fianna Fail, Mr Thomas replied: “Well, I hope so. I mean, to be honest with you, I think I am much more entitled to my place in the Fianna Fail party than the likes of Micheal Martin is.”

Asked what would happen if Sinn Fein representatives were to make comments similar to the two Fianna Fail councillors in Co Galway, Ms McDonald replied that there would be a disciplinary process.

“Any commentary that’s made that’s unhelpful, whether that’s done deliberately or otherwise, is something of course that we will address,” she told RTE.

Ms McDonald said it is “legitimate” for people struggling with access and affordability of housing to ask what happens to them in response to an increase in migration.

She added: “If your child is raising their own child in the box room of your family home on the one hand, and then you hear that others are coming to the country, and you see equally no plan, you see chaos and a shambles, people say ‘Where does that leave me?’

“And that is a legitimate question, that is not a racist expression. That is a human expression of vulnerability and, in some cases, desperation.

“(We need) an integrated plan wherein you do not pitch vulnerable people here who have been waiting and waiting and waiting to get a house and who are very desperate… and others who come from deeply vulnerable positions, for whom the Government equally has no plan and no accommodation. Nobody wins there.”