“Stretches and strains” in the public service and “particular issues around housing” must be considered when it comes to how many work permits are issued to foreign workers, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has said.
The remarks come as her party’s immigration policy faces scrutiny after a book by a former Sinn Féin insider detailed its difficulty in forming a position on the issue.
An extract from Ourselves Alone: Sinn Féin Behind Closed Doors by former party press officer Siobhán Fenton was published in the Sunday Independent last weekend. Fenton wrote that in meetings “Sinn Féin’s politicians described feeling deeply uncomfortable about not listening to working-class communities but also uncomfortable about siding with anti-migrant rhetoric”. She described it as “a circle the party couldn’t square”.
Speaking to reporters in advance of Sinn Féin’s pre-Dáil think-in meeting in Malahide, Dublin on Wednesday, McDonald said she did not recognise Fenton’s portrayal of her party’s indecision on the issue.
“I think that at a point in time our communities reflected to us that they weren’t hearing loudly enough from us in challenging the Government in their failures to manage the process of asylum seeking and the consequences of that process for the communities in which they live.”
McDonald added that “a number of years ago … we collectively, and I personally, accepted that that was the case” but “since then we have been very, very clear in setting out what we believe are the parameters, the values and the framework for making this actually work correctly”.
She said “at the heart of this, is the question of respect – respect for communities themselves, respect for their experiences … respect also for those who seek refuge and asylum, respect for the system, for the rules and regulations and for their application”.
It was earlier put to McDonald that the Government wants to see a reduction in immigration and she was asked if she agreed with that position. She said Sinn Féin wants to see a system “based on clear, transparent rules that are resourced, that are enforced” whether people are coming to Ireland on student visas or work permits or seeking international protection.
McDonald also said the system should take community and societal needs into account, giving the example of the agriculture sector finding it difficult to get workers over the summer.
“You also have to be aware of the stretches and strains on public services,” she said. “There’s a particular issue around housing in Ireland and getting accommodation so any responsible Government has to have in their line of sight all of those matters when they calculate how many permits in any particular sector might be allowable, how you manage student visas and the whole range of other elements of that policy.”
Asked if she wanted to see the number of work permits and student visas come down, she said it needs to be “dictated by need”, pointing out that workers from the European Union have the freedom to live and work in Ireland.
In advance of the think-in, Sinn Féin also outlined plans to ramp up pressure on the Government over the cost-of-living.
The party will table legislation in the Dáil to temporarily abolish carbon tax on home heating oil. An increase to the rate, planned for May, was deferred by the Coalition until October due to the sharp rise in fuel prices caused by the war in Iran.
Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said the proposals would see carbon tax on the fuel abolished for an emergency period of six months – with an option to reduce or extend this – at a cost of €20 million per month. At the point that the emergency is deemed to be over, he said the carbon tax would be restored on home heating oil but not increased.
Sinn Féin also highlighted its budget proposals to bring in €10-per-day childcare and to remove the Universal Social Charge on income up to €40,000 as part of a more than €1.5 billion income tax package.
“Workers and families were really disappointed and really left out in last year’s budget,” Doherty said.
He said “there is huge pressure on people with the cost of living” and there needs to be “an acknowledgment from Government that they did wrong last year, that they need to fix that now and it can’t be tinkering, it has to be real”.