Those renting out buildings for refugees likened to 'English landlords of decades ago'

Cllr William O'Leary told a protest at Abbeyville house in Fermoy on Monday night that people who buy buildings and rent them as refugee accommodation "are the biggest traitors out of everyone". Picture: Denis Boyle

People who buy buildings and rent them as refugee accommodation are “worse than the English landlords of decades ago” and “as bad as any drug cartel,” a Cork Fianna Fáil councillor has claimed.

"They are the biggest traitors out of everyone," Cllr William O’Leary said to loud applause at a protest about asylum seekers moving into a former B&B in Fermoy, Co Cork. He also said that immigration into the country is not sustainable at current levels and there is a failure by government to acknowledge the issue.

Abbeyville House, a former B&B across from the Town Park which closed for business some years ago, is to take 56 international protection applicants in the coming days. A camp was set up outside the premises almost four weeks ago which has been manned 24 hours a day with protestors wrapped up in sleeping bags there overnight.

Some have vowed to blockade the premises to prevent asylum seekers moving in. Approximately 60 people gathered in the rain on Monday in Fermoy, many to protest the plan to move asylum seekers into the building.

Mr O’Leary said that while allocating accommodation to international protection applicants is "State sponsored", "the carry-on of people around this country who are buying buildings and warehousing people into them" is even worse.

"[They] can go about playing the big hard men, talking about the big bucks they’re making. But they want to realise the damage they are doing to these towns.

They are worse than the English landlords of decades ago. Their behaviour is as bad as any drug cartel. Shame on them.

"Government has a lot to answer for but these people are the biggest traitors out of everyone, the way they are selling out communities," he said to loud applause.

Mr O'Leary said people at the protest were “some of finest people in Fermoy who care deeply about their community, their family and their town”. He promised to stand with them “no matter what”.

Just hours earlier, two other Fianna Fáil councillors were reprimanded for comments around asylum seekers following a fire at Ross Lake House Hotel in Co Galway, which was due to accommodate 70 international protection applicants.

Cllr Séamus Walsh, blamed the Government's policies for the fire and Cllr Noel Thomas told RTÉ that the “inn is full” and Ireland should not be taking more international protection applicants.

Ireland is “going down a very dangerous path” when anyone who disagrees with the establishment is labelled far right, Mr O'Leary said.

But  governments in Hungary and Poland were lauded by some elected representatives in Fermoy as jurisdictions with immigration policies to aspire to.

Independent Tipperary TD Mattie McGrath, who also attended the Fermoy gathering, mentioned Holland as an example of a country which was more recently wrestling control of its borders. Holland saw  hard-right leader Geert Wilder's party win the most seats in the recent Dutch elections.

Independent Ireland TD Mattie McGrath in Fermoy at the protest on Monday evening. Picture: Denis Boyle

Mr McGrath is part of the Rural Independent Group which recently put forward a Dáil motion urging Government to change its “reckless immigration policy” and called for an immediate cap on asylum seekers. He came from his Tipperary constituency to collect a petition of some 2,000 signatures against the plan to move asylum seekers into Abbeyville House.

He said that Government is ignoring the debates taking place “on every bridge, in every workplace, in every home” about immigration. He said he would hand the petition to Integration Minister Roderic O’Gorman, the Taoiseach and Tanáiste and “hopefully at that stage their eyes will be open". 

“It’s time they listened to the people,” he said. “We’re not anti-immigrant but we want control of our borders."

Independent Cork County councillor Frank Roche told the meeting “we should be housing our own people before anyone else". No buildings or businesses would accept the group for an indoor meeting in Fermoy, forcing the gathering onto the street, the crowd was told.