Europe
Irish
opposition Sinn Fein toughens immigration stance after election setback
By Reuters
July 23,
20243:41 PM GMT+2Updated 4 days ago
DUBLIN, July
23 (Reuters) - Ireland's main opposition party, Sinn Fein, outlined a stricter
immigration policy on Tuesday after identifying its lack of clarity on the
issue as a major reason for a poor showing at local council elections last
month.
Sinn Fein's
commanding three-year opinion poll lead melted away in the election run-up. It
picked up just 12% of the vote as more people seized on immigration as their
top concern rather than affordable housing, an issue which Sinn Fein has
dominated.
It proposed
that an audit of local services such as housing, transport, health and
education be required before accommodation centres for asylum seekers are
located in a community, with local people also allowed to make submissions on
the proposals.
A lack of
community engagement has been cited as one of the reasons for protests at
proposed accommodation centres - some of which have turned violent in recent
months - as the government struggles to deal with record levels of refugees.
"We
were told in no uncertain terms that people and the communities that we
represent weren't hearing us loudly enough, saying simply that they don't have
the resources, the support that they require," Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou
McDonald told a news conference, referring to a review of its poor election.
Opinion
polls suggest the left-wing party has been caught between its traditional
working-class voters more sceptical about immigration and its newer, younger
middle-class supporters concerned about migrant rights.
Sinn Fein's
new proposals also included an unwinding of what it described as a
"two-tier system", in which Ukrainian refugees receive more generous
social welfare benefits than asylum seekers from other countries.
This measure
would kick in when the temporary EU-wide rights for those fleeing Russia's 2022
invasion of Ukraine to stay and work in the bloc expire, which is due to happen
in March 2026.
Parliamentary
elections are due in Ireland by March 2025, but most analysts expect the
government to call a poll in November this year.
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