A new national organisation has been established to campaign for tighter immigration controls into Ireland. The Immigration Control Platform is being launched at a meeting in Ennis tonight, with a Dublin launch to follow shortly.
The main organiser, Ms Aine Ni Chonaill, says the aim is to "provide a voice" for those who are concerned at the increasing levels of immigration to Ireland. The group will lobby the Government to implement a "tight" immigration policy.
Her remarks about immigrants were condemned last night by the Labour TD, Mr Pat Upton, who said "the last thing we need in this country is an Irish version of Jean-Marie Le Pen" (the right-wing French politician).
Ms Ni Chonaill first came to prominence in the letters pages of The Irish Times, after a series of letters by her criticising high levels of immigration in her native west Cork. She stood in the general election last June on an anti-immigration ticket, receiving 293 votes in Cork South-West.
Ms Ni Chonaill says she has two main areas of concern: immigration from the EU to rural Ireland, and the recent "influx" of asylumseekers, refugees and illegal immigrants.
"It has not really impinged on Irish consciousness that we are a country of 3.7 million people, but that every citizen of the 370 million which make up the EU has an almost unqualified right to live in Ireland without asking anyone's permission."
In some parts of rural Ireland, she claims, up to 10 per cent and more of the population consists of British and continental European immigrants.
Ms Ni Chonaill says recent suggestions of an amnesty for asylumseekers already in the State show that the Government's concern on the issue has been "quickly undermined".
"Anyone who has observed the way the asylum process has been used as an immigration stratagem throughout Europe, and has looked at the racial tensions which large-scale, non-European immigration has brought to other European countries, could not but shudder at the thought of our following suit," she says.
The group chose Ennis for its launch because of its large asylumseeker population and because Co Clare is home to many immigrants from other EU states.
Local human rights groups originally planned a counter-meeting in support of asylum-seekers and refugees. These plans have since been cancelled, but local activists are expected to attend tonight's meeting.
