Immigrant Council condemns mayor's 'callous disregard' in race row

The Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI) has condemned remarks made today by the Mayor of Naas, Cllr. Darren Scully.

It comes as the mayor faces calls to resign over allegations of racism after he warned he will refuse to represent members of the black community.

Mr Scully told a Co Kildare radio station he found “black Africans” to be aggressive and bad-mannered, and that he would no longer represent them.

A special meeting of Naas Town Council has been called for this evening.

Denise Charlton, Chief Executive of the ICI, said: "In addition to the racist overtures in what he said, I am shocked that an elected official could show such callous disregard for a significant section of his constituents. Over 40,000 people of African descent live in Ireland, and they have the right to vote in local elections. So it beggars belief that a local politician would just dismiss this section of the voting public."

A senior member of Fine Gael, Phil Hogan, has said everyone in the country should be respected.

Mr Hogan said he has not heard the remarks made by mayor Scully, but Minister Hogan expects the matter will be examined by the party's National Executive.

Ms Charlton said: "We welcome the fact Fine Gael has distanced itself from Cllr Scully’s comments – it is hugely important political parties show leadership on this issue and demonstrate decisively that racist attitudes simply will not be tolerated.

"People in positions of power – who have significant exposure to the public – need to be conscious of what they say and of the impact their actions and words could potentially have. Comments like those made by Cllr Scully do have consequences.

"In recent days alone, we have seen a racist attack on a taxi driver of African origin, so we need to face up to the fact that, unfortunately, racism does exist in Ireland. Our elected officials should be doing everything in their power to challenge racism, rather than contributing to it."