Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald has called for public anger to be directed at the Government instead of refugees.
She was speaking after a poll in the Irish Independent found 56% of the public believe Ireland has taken in too many refugees in the past year. Protests have been held in Waterford, Cork and Dublin in recent weeks.
Gardai are also investigating an alleged assault at a campsite in Ashtown, Dublin, where migrants had been living for months, and a suspected arson attack on a disused school in Dublin that had been rumoured to be used for migrants.
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Speaking on RTE Radio’s The Week Ms McDonald blamed a “very small fringe” for whipping up anger against refugees. She said: “The Government have really handled so many situations so badly.
“We’ve had a housing emergency for many years, lots of people have direct experience of this crisis, they’re living in overcrowded circumstances, they’re paying exorbitant rents, if they can get a place and they have had Government inaction.
“There is huge frustration and anger, actually, I think sometimes people haven’t been angry enough with Government. I understand all of the anger and that anger needs to be directed at those in power, those that have the capacity to change things.
“We need to be careful in understanding that it is a small group of very, very nasty individuals, who are trying to foment this view of aggression and negativity towards people who are weak. The Irish instinct fundamentally is an instinct of decency, Irish people are decent and welcoming.
“But I also know people have struggled long and hard for years with a Government that has failed rural communities, left town after town without services, without opportunities, and an inability to source accommodation, and that has driven righteous, correct anger.
“We need a government with a plan for housing, social development and regeneration. We also need to have a clearheaded view from Irish people in apportioning blame where it rightly lies, and it does not lay at the feet of any refugee”.
RTE’s This Week obtained figures showing the number of staff working on processing asylum appeals fell by 8% in 2019 despite a surge in applications and a backlog of hundreds of cases. Speaking on RTE television’s The Week in Politics, Minister of State Pippa Hackett said space could be found for 76,000 more refugees, insisting: “We have a lot of space in Ireland.”
She added Integration Minister Roderic O’Gorman has written to colleagues asking for help identifying empty buildings and an all-of-government approach.
Ms Hackett said: “I believe they really will pull out all the stops. This is a crisis.”
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