Sinn Féin Advocates Relocation of Refugee Centres to Urban Areas
Dublin: Sinn Féin has called for refugee centres to be relocated to developed areas in Ireland, asserting that urban areas are the most suitable and well-equipped to receive refugees. Party leader Mary Lou McDonald expressed this stance in a recent interview.
McDonald stated that Sinn Féin opposes the reinstatement of the Coolock Centre and emphasised the party’s policy to expedite deportations and triple the number of refugee welfare officers to support new refugees and Ukrainians.
During the radio interview, McDonald engaged in a heated exchange with the host. When the host suggested that the government’s and Sinn Féin’s policies on the refugee issue were similar, McDonald vigorously defended her party’s new migration policy. She became visibly irritated when asked for specifics on how the policy would be resourced, responding, “I’m not a minister.”
Sinn Féin also disagrees with the practice of consulting communities about planned accommodation for refugees.
When questioned about the cost of increasing the staff at the Office of International Protection from 400 to 1,000, McDonald downplayed the financial impact, stating, “It costs money, and I can’t afford it, but it’s not too much.”
Presenter Philip Boucher Hayes pressed her on whether it would indeed cost “1,000 new civil servants” to implement the policy, to which McDonald responded with frustration.
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