Harris more interested in collapsing tents than clamping vulture funds - Hearne

The Social Democrats MEP candidate for the Midlands North-West, Rory Hearne, has spoken out against Simon Harris’s hardening stance on immigration since taking over the office of the Taoiseach.

He said that he is “playing populist politics with immigration” and is “more interested in collapsing tents than clamping down on vulture funds”.

Mr Hearne’s comments come in response to what he sees as the shift in government attitude towards immigration, from cutting entitlements to Ukrainians, to handing tents to people seeking refuge instead of providing secure, safe accommodation, to now carrying out checks and arresting people on buses coming from Northern Ireland.

He first spoke out against Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s shifting policies on immigration a few weeks ago, when he claimed that the government’s failure to provide accommodation to male asylum seekers is manufactured to appear to be tough on immigration and is a political move to dog whistle to a certain audience.

He called for a Covid-level emergency response to housing and immigration through opening the tens of thousands of derelict buildings across the country and repurposing them as accommodation.

“Not only are these actions failing really vulnerable people seeking asylum, but they are fuelling the far right by pushing genuinely concerned people their way during an election period,” he said.

He spoke out again against Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s shifting policies during RTÉ’s ‘The Week in Politics’. Responding to Barry Cowen’s comments about increased immigration checks on the border, he said: “The two parties are using the immigration issue as a scapegoat to get attention away from their policy failures. Waiting lists for mental healthcare for children and GP appointments for example, they’re not created by immigrants, they’re created by a lack of investment and a privatisation agenda.

“Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are pushing the idea at the EU level, that immigrants are the problem and they’re not investing in the public services that people need. Ukrainians are working in construction in this country helping to fix the housing crisis. People in direct provision are working. Immigrants are not burdens.”

Later on social media Mr Hearne posted: “Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael get tough on asylum seekers (vulnerable people seeking refuge) but as for vulture funds raking in millions off renters and buying homes – no clampdown here.”