Pandering to prejudice is unacceptable

PHIL HOGAN’S attempts to block a constituent family getting housing needs to be put in context.

Earlier this week it emerged that the Minister for the Environment — whose portfolio includes housing and community — made representations to Kilkenny County Council not to house the Carthy family. Hogan accepts he made the representations. His office contacted other constituents by letter on May 29 to assure them that the family wouldn’t be housed in their area of Bonnettstown. The family in question are Travellers.

Less than two months before that communication, on the morning of Mar 31, another house in another area of Hogan’s constituency was burned to the ground. The house was located in Kilmacow, near the M9, and was purchased by the county council during the construction of the motorway. At around 3am on the morning in question, two men were seen standing on the northbound carriage of the motorway, watching the house burn.