Minister: Ukrainians welcomed by Irish

THE vast majority of Irish people are so welcoming of Ukrainians and international protection applicants because we remember when we went to other shores and were glad to get help then, Community and Rural Affairs Minister Heather Humphreys has said as she arrived in Kinsale on Thursday to open the town’s new library.

Responding to a question from reporters asking whether Ireland was ‘full’ as far-right extremists were claiming, the minister said that the situation was challenging and that the country had, between Ukrainian refugees and applicants for international protection, welcomed more than 100,000 people to our shores.

“That’s almost twice the population of my own county of Monaghan — and that’s a lot of people,” she said. “In the majority of cases they have been welcomed here.

“We must remember where some of these people are coming from, they’re coming from very, very difficult and dangerous situations, and we as a people are very welcoming and we do want to help others. We will think back to when we went to other shores many years ago and we were glad to get help then as well.”

The minister said she ‘absolutely’ condemned what happened to library staff in Cork last July when far-right activists harassed library staff as they attempted to remove a book about transgender issues from the Grand Parade facility.

Addressing the staff of Cork City Library, she said: “Thank you for the work that you do, we have wonderful library staff up and down the country and they deserve to be able to go to their work and know that they are not going to be intimidated or upset in any way.”

Ms Humphreys said she was aware that library staff had received extra training to deal with such situations and received support from the local authorities.

“I would say to those people who come and abuse staff in the library, they’re doing society a huge injustice,” she said, adding that policing such protests as happened in Cork during the summer was a matter for the gardaí to decide.