Refugees and asylum-seekers are breeding like rabbits here, an independent Fianna Fáil councillor has said.
"There is more thought of refugees in this country than there is of farmers," Cllr Dixie Doyle told yesterday's Kilkenny County Council meeting. "They are breeding like rabbits."
The chairman of the council, Cllr Pat Millea, immediately demanded that Mr Doyle withdraw the remark, which he did after being asked for the fourth time.
The incident occurred when Mr Phil Hogan TD (Fine Gael) asked if there had been any correspondence between the county council and the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, about the plan to house 250 asylum-seekers in a compound off the Dublin Road in the city.
Later, Mr Doyle issued a statement saying his comments were totally irresponsible and were made out of a sense of frustration regarding his perception that matters relating to farmers were being overlooked by the council. He apologised to those seeking asylum in Ireland.
Mr Doyle failed to secure the Fianna Fáil nomination for the local elections 1999 and stood as an independent.
Two years ago he was forced to apologise to Ms Judith Ashton when he tried to force her to sell a site she owned to him. The site is adjacent to his farm at Carrickmourne, Thomastown.
The county council became embroiled in the case and Ms Ashton was offered a county council site even though she never applied for it.
The former County Manager, Mr Paddy Donnelly, acted as go-between in an effort to facilitate the sale.