Mayo local election candidate disappointed at support for 'backward' council motion

A candidate for the upcoming local elections in Mayo has voiced his disapproval has spoken of his disappointment over the Mayo County Council motion to withdraw all co-operation from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.

Last week, councillors unanimously voted to stop all co-operation with the Department until “an agreed strategy is put in place to properly co-ordinate the provision of additional services for the communities hosting refugees and international protection applicants”.

Peter Nolan, the Green Party candidate for West Mayo in the local elections, said that the county could not act in populist isolation from the rest of the country or turn its back on the obligations that Ireland as a whole has under international law to receive and treat immigrants with decency and humanity.

He said that nobody, elected or non-elected, had a right to veto who lives or doesn’t live in an area and that the Mayo Greens could not stand quietly by in the face of the regressive and isolationist move taken by the current elected members of the Council.

Nolan said that he understands that the issue of immigration and integration is not an easy one to manage, particularly given the increase in applicants over the past two years. However, offering people fleeing persecution safety was something that we should be proud to do and something that we should recognise as a good thing, he said.

“We are extremely disappointed and frankly disillusioned with the unanimous support given to this motion,” Nolan said. “While you might expect that some more regressive Councillors might consider this the right move, it is shocking that all Councillors chose to support this motion.” 

“The issue of immigration is not an easy one to manage. The Minister for Integration, Roderic O’Gorman, has himself said that the current system is not working and that he is putting in place plans to move to a situation where more accommodation is State-owned or State bought. In the meantime, however, the answer is not to turn our backs on people who need our support and compassion now.” 

“Over the past week I have heard from many people who feel that they have been let down by their elected representatives. This backward motion really underpins the need for a progressive, Green voice in our local politics – one that understand the complexity of the issue of immigration but one that is not going to rush in to put up populist guard-rails.”