More than 100 people picketed a Cork city hotel last night where a Fianna Fáil fundraising dinner hosted by Cork North-Central TD, Mr Noel O'Flynn, and attended by the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, was being held.
The protest was led by the Socialist Youth group in the city which has described Mr O'Flynn's comments on asylum seekers last week as outrageous.
In an interview with The Irish Times he had said he was against "the spongers, the freeloaders, the people screwing the system", and added that many asylum seekers were "thumbing their noses at Irish hospitality and demanding everything under the Geneva Convention while the taxpayer is paying for it all".
Mr O'Flynn's remarks were subsequently debated in the Dáil and there were calls from the Opposition for his removal from Fianna Fáil.
The Taoiseach dissociated the Government from the remarks but since then Mr O'Flynn has refused to retract what he said, and went one step further last night by demanding action on his views. He said that since he went public his office in Cork had been inundated with letters and calls from people who agreed with what he said.
Last week NASC, the Irish Immigrant Support Centre in Cork, said the TD's remarks were inflammatory, uncalled for, and potentially dangerous. A NASC spokesman, Mr Brendan Hennessy, said public representatives were expected to protect minority rights and not use the immigration issue as a barely-concealed vote- getting exercise.
On his way into the dinner, at the city centre Imperial Hotel where gardaí were on duty, Mr McCreevy said the immigration question was an emotive one and everybody, including TDs, should be very careful about the type of language they used.
Together with Mr O'Flynn, he entered the hotel by a side entrance and the media were asked to leave at the door to the ballroom.
Before welcoming his guests at the £130-a-plate dinner, Mr O'Flynn said the media through its reporting of his remarks seemed to be practising reverse discrimination on him. He said he would not be drawn any further and added: "I have made my comments and that's the end of the matter, I now expect action to be taken."