Linking housing crisis to immigration used to fuel 'racist' viewpoints, minister says

David Raleigh

The Minister for Transport, Darragh O’Brien has said that, in his opinion, immigration could not be tied to Ireland’s housing crisis, which he claimed has been peddled by some as a way “to further very racist viewpoints”.

Speaking to reporters in Adare, Co Limerick, on Friday, Minister O’Brien, who previously held the government’s housing portfolio, said he was in favour of continued deportation flights for illegal immigrants.

A child was among 32 people deported to Georgia, a designated safe country, on a chartered flight out of Dublin Airport on Thursday night, in the first deportation operation under a State contract to deport people unlawfully from the Republic of Ireland.

Minister O’Brien said people who had successfully sought asylum in the State “can stay here, and rightly so”, but he warned, “if you’re not entitled to say here, you must leave”.

“We have a fair system, but we need a firm system as well,” he said.

When asked if deportations of illegal immigrants might in some way alleviate Ireland’s housing crisis, the minister replied: “Look, I think it's not an issue of and related to housing at all...I understand the question, but that is not where the pressure comes on accommodation, to be frank.

"So, I don't want to to tie the issue of immigration with housing, that is not the question.”

Minister O’Brien said “some have used that argument to further very racist viewpoints in relation to, we have serious challenges in housing”.

“The last government were able to make very significant progress in that regard, and we want to step that up further — and immigration, particularly in this area, I don't believe contributes to that in any major way,” he added.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland radio programme, the Minister for Justice, Jim O’Callaghan, said: “If you’re seeking asylum and you’re not entitled to asylum - don’t come to Ireland.”

Minister O’Brien said Minister O’Callaghan had his “full in the work he is doing” in respect of deportations.