Laois County Council will write to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration & Youth of Ireland, to request that an agreed strategy is immediately put in place to properly co-ordinate the provision of additional services for the communities hosting refugees and international protection applicants.
Independent Cllrs Aisling Moran and Ben Brennan were joined by Sinn Féin Cllr Aidan Mullins in jointly raising the motion at the January meeting of Laois County Council this week.
The trio highlighted the need for medical, policing, accommodation, housing, education, transport, and training services.
“We need doctors,” Cllr Moran said. “Some of the communities have no doctor at all, and yet they (the Government) want to put in extra people.
“We need policing, transport, accommodation – accommodation that is not taken from our tourist sector.
“We need interpreters for schools. We have kids coming into classes and teachers having to spend that little bit extra time with those who don’t have English.
“And all of this needs to be done before the arrival, and the chosen communities need to be informed before the arrival.
“They need to have meetings to inform, engage, and coordinate an approach so that we can look after these people in a humane manor.
“Then there is the question of staff that are working around these children. If you want to work with a football club, or a soccer club or, bring kids off for a walk through the woods, you need to be either Garda vetted or core registered. We need to make sure these people are registered.”
Cllr Aidan Mullins then described Government policies on immigration as ‘a shambles’.
He said: “A big issue at the moment we see with the protests around the country is the treatment of local communities who have been shown disrespect and disdain by the Government.
“All these communities are looking for is information and consultation where there is genuine concerns which should be listened to and taken into account.
“Where there is a small village or town in Ireland where the residents have spent generations building up their community, building up the services, where you have social and public cohesion and where you’ve got a happy community, I don’t think the Government can just parachute in hundreds of unvetted people.
“And the Government don’t want you using the word ‘unvetted,’ well people have a concern for unvetted males.
“They’re finger prints are taken, yes, but they’re checked against the European database, but it is not a criminal database – it is not Europol, it is not Interpol.
“So there is no check as regard to the possible criminal background.
“I’m not suggesting the people coming here are all criminals, far from it, but we can be sure that some of them are, as was shown in the ports here.”
Cllr Ben Brennan said: “I know people have concerns; old people have said it to me that they’re afraid to go out for a walk because they don’t know who’s coming in.
“No one is being Garda vetted, no one.
“How long do we have to wait to get houses for our own? We are full. Where are we going to put these people?
“We have our own people dying in the streets and there’s nothing being done about it.”
The motion was supported by Independent Cllr James Kelly and Fianna Fáil Cllr Padraig Fleming, who said the motion was “very timely.”
