Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have a letter here from a senior management official in Clare County Council. I will just read the beginning of it. It is written to Government.

I am writing to you regarding the deepening focus on migrant accommodation in north Clare, specifically in Lisdoonvarna and Ballyvaughan. I am urging you to reduce the numbers of migrants in these settlements to reasonable levels as I have serious concerns about the health, safety and welfare of the people in these communities.

To make it very clear, these are two very welcoming communities. They are not communities of protests or noise making. I want to put some perspective on this. The migrant population of Lisdoonvarna at this time represents 125% of the settled population of the town and the migrant population of Ballyvaughan represents 95% of the settled population of this village. This contrasts very sharply when compared with the overall county of Clare where the migrant population makes up 4.3% of the population and even more sharply when compared with Dublin, which is 0.9%. The town has taken a large number of migrants, welcomed them and supported them but the ancillary supports such as education and healthcare have not increased to that extent. We have had ambassadors down. We have had official down. We had boots on the ground in the early weeks but they are not there anymore.

See this speech in context