A town councillor refused to withdraw a motion from the formal agenda at Killarney Town Council when pressed to do so by fellow councillors who said it could be seen as racist.
The motion, by Cllr Donal Grady (Independent), to write to the Minister for Health "requesting that all people coming into our country who will be staying in our area be screened for medical reasons" was amended to exclude tourists.
Now reading as people coming "to live" in Ireland, it was seconded by Cllr Michael Courtney (Independent). He said he wanted to hear the debate.
A furious argument broke out, which saw the mayor, Sheila Casey (Fine Gael), getting to her feet to restore order. Midway through the debate, Mr Courtney left the chamber.
Presenting his motion, Mr Grady said when Irish people had to go to America they had to get screened and his motion was designed "to protect" people living here as well as persons coming in here to live.
There had been recent outbreaks of TB and the health service was under pressure because of the numbers of people coming into the country.
However, Cllr Brian O'Leary (Fianna Fáil) said the motion gave the implication people were coming in with germs, and diseases enough to cause epidemics. There was absolutely no proof of that. The recent outbreak of TB in Cork had nothing to do with foreign nationals. Cllr Seán O'Grady (Labour) said most migrants were screened before or after they arrived in the area.
Cllr Niall O'Callaghan (Independent) said it had "racial permutations" and he did not like it, while Cllr Patrick O'Donoghue (Fianna Fáil) said the word screened suggested filtration systems.
However, Mr Grady refused to withdraw the motion and said at the very least he wanted to find out which immigrant groups were screened.
The motion fell.