We’re missing the bigger social issue
WHY did the mayor of Naas publicly condemn a whole group of people he had been elected to represent?
Darren Scully, a 38-year-old father of three was forced to resign as mayor on Tuesday evening, after being pilloried for saying he would no longer deal with, as he described them, bad-mannered, aggressive, black Africans.
Apart from plain old manners — one of the traits he was so quick to pick up on — politically, the Fine Gael councillor must have known such a statement would cause outrage.
Or is he among the class of politicians who believes they remain above rebuke from public opinion?
The town councillor appears to have form. In 2008, the Co Kildare man claimed young girls were becoming pregnant so they could get council houses. So it seems it is not unusual for him to pick on a fairly vulnerable group of people.
What is unusual about this case is that he thought he could call a whole community aggressive and bad mannered, refuse to deal with them as he had been elected to do, and get away with it.
His gripe with Africans living in Naas, by his own admission, again goes back to housing. On local radio KFM, he explained he was continually bombarded with representations from Africans. He said they did not seem to understand he couldn’t help them to get a house, and that he was subjected to unacceptable behaviour, and was often called a racist himself.
While all politicians are expected to have thick skin, if they really feel they are being bullied or intimidated by members of the public, this should not be tolerated.
But if Mr Scully was serious about highlighting what he is alleging, he should have did it in a dignified, well thought-out and evidence-based manner.
It would be interesting to find out from Mr Scully the number of people is he talking about.
How often do they come to him? How long does he spend with them, and what are their housing arrangements?
Has he records of these abuses he has faced? Or witnesses? Has he brought them to the council’s attention? Has he brought them to the attention of his party?
These questions were put by the Irish Examiner to Mr Scully yesterday but he did not respond.
Ironically, a Kildare county council publication highlights migrants and ethnic minorities as a group who are vulnerable to poverty in the county.
It points out that Kildare has proportionately larger “black or black Irish” population than the rest of the state at 2,542 people out of a population of more than 161,000.
The document points out that these economic migrants “frequently experience difficulties” with regard to housing, tenure of employment and social integration.
Perhaps if Mr Scully had read this, and taken its meaning on board he would not have been so quick to criticise a community his county had identified as vulnerable, and who are probably at their wits’ end when it comes to the bureaucracy of local government.
His comments have given ammunition to racist attitudes in this country.
Comments flying around cyberspace in support of Mr Scully claimed “these people” were bullying officials to get themselves registered as asylum seekers so they could “claim benefits”.
It’s this kind of blatant ignorance that has us where we are. These people could not be asylum seekers, as it is not impossible for an asylum seeker to go on a housing list or indeed claim any welfare benefit.
The reality is that it is notoriously difficult to claim asylum in Ireland, and it is not the job of public representatives to decide on that in any case, but dedicated officials affiliated to the department of Justice.
So the people being talked about are migrants living and working in Ireland and who should be entitled to local authority housing but are obviously experiencing serious difficulties in getting satisfaction.
This is the issue we should be debating. Instead the biggest focus will more than likely continue to be whether or not Mr Scully’s positions as a member of Fine Gael party and a Naas town councillor are tenable.
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