Bertie Ahern immigration comments ‘don’t represent’ party, Micheál Martin says

By Claudia Savage, Press Association

Bertie Ahern’s comments on immigration “don’t represent the views” of Fianna Fáil, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said.

The former taoiseach made comments about Africans and Muslims which were circulated in a social media video.

Ahern expressed “worry” about the next generation of Muslim people growing up in Ireland, and also said “we can’t be taking in people from the Congo”.

Speaking to reporters at the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis on Friday, Martin said the former Fianna Fáil leader’s views “don’t represent the views of the party”.

“We take the issue very seriously because we’ve cultivated and promoted people who come from different ethnicities, who arrived in Ireland, who are not Irish citizens, and who now participate in Irish politics, and there’s a strong membership in Fianna Fáil in that sense,” he said.

“But we’re not stopping people from canvassing, but we are making it very clear to all our canvassers what the party position is and what is permissible and what is not permissible.”

He added: “(Mr Ahern) didn’t realise it was being recorded, that’s no excuse by the way, but we can’t physically stop people from canvassing, but we’ve given very clear guidelines to our canvassers in terms of the principles of the party.

“I’ve been out on the canvas, we haven’t had those kind of conversations, and I haven’t heard of anyone canvassing with me having those conversations on the doorstep.

“It did arise from time to time, housing was the biggest issue that came up when I was up in Dublin Central, and quite a number of times now, canvassing, and I’d have to say housing was the key enduring issue for many.”