"Community Voice" article on the Passports for votes issue

From the "Community Voice" newspaper:

http://www.communityvoice.ie/pages/CV137/CV137n02.htm

Fine Gael accused of ‘hypocrisy’ on immigration policy
by Martin Ryan

Fine Gael policy with regard to ethnic communities locally has recently come under the spotlight on two fronts. At a ‘meet the candidates’ public meeting for the new Irish communities in the Mulhuddart ward, Cllr. Ruth Coppinger accused Fine Gael of “hypocrisy” in relation to integration and education policy. She referred to the support of Deputy Leo Varadkar of the requirement for baptismal certificates for entry to Catholic run schools and said that the party’s policy on the matter amounted to educational apartheid.

Speaking to Community Voice after the meeting the councillor also questioned why there was no Labour representative at the meeting and why a Fianna Fáil representative attended only as the meeting was drawing to a close. The event was held in Tyrrelstown Educate Together primary school by a group called the New Communities Partnership, an organisation which describes itself as “empowering and representing ethnic minorities”. The event was designed to make the immigrant community cognisant of the issues and views of the Mulhuddart ward candidates and to advise on issues such as voter registration.

Meanwhile Tyrrelstown based Independent candidate Ignatius Okafor has criticised Fine Gael for raising what he describes as an ugly issue relating to “spurious promises” being made in order to garner votes in the upcoming election. The allegation relates to comments Mr. Okafor claims were made by Fine Gael election candidate Adeola Ogunsina at a public meeting in Blanchardstown earlier this month.

According to Okafor, Adeola Ogunsina suggested to a group of over 100 African immigrants that if they voted for him they would have a favourable chance of getting passports within six months. Mr. Okafor said that he challenged the claim at the meeting but “was derided by Fine Gael for not knowing what I was talking about when it came to Irish politics.”

He further claimed that he was approached by many people present who he said were surprised that he raised the matter as “they told me that they and friends had been made this promise on many occasions by Adeola Ogunsina and the local Fine Gael TD Leo Varadkar.” He said that initially he thought Ogunsina might have misspoken on this occasion, but he said it was made clear to him by the people at the meeting that this was already known in the immigrant community.

He said that “such false promises undermine the integration of our society” and can lead to many new immigrants becoming disillusioned with Irish society, further alienating them from participating fully in our communities. “After all elected representatives both at local and national level are supposed to provide an example to others on whose behalf they act,” he added.

Okafor said he has been reluctant to raise the issue of immigrant status during his campaign as he believed it to be an issue of national policy rather than something that should be raised at local level. “But to raise it in the misleading manner Fine Gael are doing at present is worrying and it is even more serious that the target audience being courted by this Fine Gael policy is among the most vulnerable in Irish society” he said.

He called on the Fine Gael leadership to clarify the party’s position and say if this is official Fine Gael policy and if so why it has not appeared in any of their policy documents or manifestos.

“If it is not official Fine Gael policy then why are they allowing their candidates to make these spurious claims publicly,” he asked.

Fianna Fáil candidate Idowu Olafimihan has joined in the criticism of Fine Gael referring back to proposals by Leo Varadkar that immigrants might be given a financial incentive to repatriate. Olafimihan said that this would leave economic migrants from non-EU countries as the whipping boys of the Fine Gael proposal, and suggested that this can be broken down further between economic migrants for the first and third worlds.

“There are numbers of US and other first world citizens living and working in Ireland which I assume are not the target of the Fine Gael proposal given Ireland’s continuous attempts to persuade the USA to ‘normalise’ the status of the undocumented Irish in America” he said.

“Thus this Fine Gael proposal is limited to those economic migrants from third world countries of origin. Negative proposals such as Deputy Varadkar’s are not only worthless but they generate a climate of exclusion, they construct an “us and them” atmosphere that is an enemy of integration and an enemy to the community” he added.

He referred to the reported comments of Adeola Ogunsina as an “empty promise” and asked if the Fine Gael candidate would explain how he would achieve this since it is not within the powers of a local councillor. He also questioned how the promise of passports could stand alongside Leo Varadkar’s comments on repatriation incentives.

“The best way to deal with the Fine Gael proposals is to cast your vote for those willing to oppose it. Let us show him that we cannot be deceived by frivolous and empty promises,” he added.

When contacted by Community Voice, both Adeola Ogunsina and Fine Gael headquarters refused to comment on the matter.