Plans to house up to 500 asylum seekers on the premises have attracted legitimate questions, protests, and in the last week some pure thuggery perpetrated by a small minority. Firstly, the locating of asylum seekers in a community suffering deprivation was regarded as an accommodation issue and little more. Meanwhile, sandwiched between identifying the site and meeting the politicians, the Government indicated a new approach to housing asylum seekers. That day, on a visit to Fermoy, Taoiseach Simon Harris was asked about issues around accommodating asylum seekers. Again, the resultant vacuum opens up huge plains of fertile ground for nefarious actors to spread their messages of hate and intolerance.

Source: Irish Examiner July 24, 2024 14:35 UTC