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How Gardaí and the State have lessons to learn about how migrants are treated in Ireland

Ireland has a relatively high non-enforcement rate of deportation orders but campaigners say there are plenty of lessons to learn in terms of how migrants are treated by the State.

ON SATURDAY 27 March 2021, two detectives from the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) paid a visit to Chain Wen Wei, an English language student from Malaysia. The pair told her that, since she had been refused permission to enter Ireland under the Immigration Act but remained in the country, she could be arrested, detained and deported if she didn’t leave voluntarily.

Solid police work, you might think. The only problem: Wei was appealing against the refusal of permission to enter, and the GNIB had agreed the day before, in court, that it would not take action against her while the legal process took its course. 

The Gardai nevertheless told Wei that “it was fine if [she] was appealing but that [she] was getting a deportation order”. They added that “she should not have gone to court; and that her solicitor was just interested in money”. An appalled High Court judge, Ms Justice Burns, described this as “shocking. It is a fundamental requirement within a democracy that all persons are entitled to legal assistance and advice”.

“The Court, she added, “can only hope that that is the case and that events of this nature are an aberration in terms of how An Garda Siochana conduct their business”.

A Garda spokesperson told The Journal that a review of the incident is underway “with a view to establishing lessons to be learned and amending relevant Garda Síochána policy and procedures, if appropriate”.

NGOs working with migrants say that the Gardai, and the State more generally, have plenty of lessons to learn in terms of how migrants are treated. In August, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission released a report pointing to “negative attitudes amongst Garda members towards minority ethnic groups”. (Ethnic minorities are not necessarily immigrants, of course, but there will be overlap.)

The report also complained of “racial profiling” — an issue often raised when it comes to GNIB immigration checks on the Northern Ireland land border.

The Committee on the Administration of Justice has said that “witness and victim testimony indicates that these checks are frequently conducted on the basis of (at times quite blatant) racial profiling”.

One such witness testimony, passed to The Journal by the End Deportations Belfast campaign group, said: “Guards asked ID from all passengers – some white people did not have ID and were OK. 4 people of colour asked to step off the coach and take their luggage with them. Guards took them to their car and our bus has gone”.

That said, the enforcement of immigration laws is quite relaxed in some ways. Ireland has a relatively high non-enforcement rate of deportation orders. 363 people were deported last year, while another 261 left voluntarily.

Some countries routinely lock migrants up in preparation for deportation or removal, a practice known as immigration detention. “Compared to other EU countries, Ireland does not detain large numbers of migrants and asylum seekers — typically less than a dozen people at any given moment”, according to the Global Detention Project.

The major complaint when it comes to detention is the lack of a dedicated detention centre. Migrants who may have committed no crime are instead held in Garda stations or prisons.

IRL_migArtboard 2

Last year, a Chilean woman was held in solitary confinement in the women’s section of Mountjoy Prison for nearly two weeks – despite people from Chile not reqiuring visas to enter Ireland. “She was detained with murderers”, says her solicitor Wendy Lyon.

The Guards are the enforcement arm of the immigration system, but they don’t issue visas or set policies. With the exception of work permits, that’s down to Immigration Service Delivery (called until recently the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service), which like GNIB is ultimately overseen by the Department of Justice.

A DOJ spokesperson said that “the Department is committed to treating those who seek refuge on our shores, or to make a new home for themselves in ours, with respect”.

That’s not everyone’s experience. Serena, whose husband is Egyptian and initially undocumented, says that dealing with the immigration authorities has been infuriating.

“It’s really not about saying visas need to be handed out more”, she explains. “I understand dealing with undocumented people it has to be a difficult process because I don’t believe in a free for all… but it’s the system after a person has been granted permission.” 

“As we married this year my husband is now a father of two Irish children and the spouse of an Irish citizen and should theoretically be entitled to a three-year visa, not one year like we have been getting since 2016”.

“We have proof we are living together since 2014, he is on both my children’s birth certificates, I have school and doctors’ letters that he is an active father. He is in employment. Yet again they for no explainable reason said ‘Yes we know you’re married now and should get 3 years but on this occasion we’re just giving you a year’… and stamped his stuff and walked off.

“I burst into tears and next year I’ll be doing this same rigmarole again”.

For those still undocumented, a forthcoming amnesty (aka regularisation scheme) is good news, up to a point. Asylum seekers in the controversial D irect Provision system of institutional accommodation also have reasons to be cheerful, in principle: it’s due to be phased out by 2024.

But campaigner Bulelani Mfaco isn’t optimistic.

“While the commitment to end Direct Provision was met with excitement from asylum seekers and campaigners, much of that fanfare has slowly turned into despair”, he tells The Journal. The Immigrant Council of Ireland agrees that there’s been a “lack of progress” in this area.

Direct Provision would be a less pressing issue if decisions on whether someone should get refugee status didn’t take so long. Long waits for asylum, visa and citizenship decisions were raised by pretty much everyone consulted for this article.

The DOJ accepts that “there have been some unavoidable delays as a result of public health measures” but insists that it “responded quickly and creatively throughout the year so that our immigration services not only continued but adapted and improved”.

“There are delays across the system. They’re very bad in pretty much every area”, counters immigration solicitor Wendy Lyon. “Covid made things worse, but it was always bad”.

IRL_migArtboard 3

Professor Patricia Brazil of Trinity College worries that the rising backlog of asylum cases threatens to undo recent progress.

“Twenty years ago there were endemic issues in the area of asylum decision-making, but in the past ten years there has been a clear commitment to making real and positive changes, which are very welcome”, she says. “However, resources are always an issue and there is a growing backlog once again in processing protection applications”.

The exception seems to be work permits, which unlike most other immigration issues are handled by the business department.

“The Department or Enterprise, Trade and Employment certainly runs more efficiently”, says Carol Sinnott of Sinnott Solicitors. “In comparison to the extraordinary delays that our clients have experienced in receiving decisions in respect of various Immigration applications such as  citizenship applications, long stay visa applications and applications to join EU family members in the State to name but a few, we have not encountered any similar extraordinary delays in obtaining work permits”.

But it’s all relative: the processing time for employment permits is still three months. Speeding things up across the board would take a lot of the sting out of criticism of the Irish immigration system.

More consistency would help too. “The quality of individual decisions, for example on visa and EU Treaty Rights applications, varies widely”, Brazil says.

Serena, at the sharp end, agrees. “There is no uniformity in their decisions and they never ever have to explain themselves or be transparent on why they refuse people”, she complains. “One person in an identical situation to another can get everything: visa, passport the lot. The other will be refused at every turn and they will never tell you why, hiding behind ‘it’s a case by case decision’. That’s the most frustrating part”.

Lyon reckons that where you’re from matters more than it should. “People from places like Bangladesh, even if they’re applying for an employment permit, will still be treated worse than an American applying for an employment permit… there’s a culture of suspicion”.

Overall, though, most complaints tend to centre around what you might call “customer service”. In addition to delays and inconsistency, the Immigrant Council cites technical problems with online visa renewals; difficulty securing in-person appointments at Burgh Quay; and vital documents getting lost in the post.

The DOJ says it’s on the case. “People who use our immigration service rightly expect our processes to be personalised, timely and responsive and the Department has implemented many initiatives across our immigration service in order to meet this expectation These include the introduction of an online process for the renewal of registrations; pre-clearance schemes to allow customers to apply for residence permissions prior to travelling; the introduction of online forms and payments; renewed focus on eliminating processing backlogs in key areas; and working towards the delivery of a new, more user-friendly website”.

The department also stresses that “Ireland benefits economically, socially and culturally from the diversity brought to our country by those who choose to travel here to visit, to study, to work and to live”.

For many individual immigrants, the boring operational grind of processing their cases efficiently is much more important than the warm words.

This work is co-funded by Journal Media and a grant programme from the European Parliament. Any opinions or conclusions expressed in this work is the author’s own. The European Parliament has no involvement in nor responsibility for the editorial content published by the project. For more information, see here.

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    Mute Nan
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:07 PM

    So weddings can go ahead In the same format ??

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    Mute David Clements
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:08 PM

    @Nan: they’ve already clarified that they can

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    Mute Anna Anna
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:27 PM

    @David Clements: hotels have been calling couples and advising them to get their numbers down to 50. This multiple rooms option was never brought up until now and for obvious reasons. If you have two rooms holding 80 people it’s very unlikely there’ll be no mixing between the two rooms, so your close contacts for the event will be more than allowed 50 by the end of the night. Hotel staff aren’t going to be guarding doors like security to prevent mixing between the guests.
    -It’s a win anyway for people holding weddings/events if this is allowed now, though I doubt it will be

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    Mute Kate Flaherty
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:28 PM

    @Nan: according to other guests staying at said hotel there were no guidelines being followed, no social distancing, no masks and people shaking hands at reception as they were introduced, all very disheartening and infuriating for the rest of us and as for those on the front line they were only short of sticking two fingers up to them!..

    205
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    Mute David Clements
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:34 PM

    @Anna Anna: sorry yeh I thought the person was asking whether weddings were subject to the new 6 person limit. Obviously splitting the event is absolute and total nonsense and they bloody well knew it. A farce!

    95
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    Mute David Clements
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:35 PM

    @Kate Flaherty: please don’t demean this important issue with unsubstantiated hearsay. We know enough about how these people broke the regulations without adding any whatsapp stuff into it…

    25
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    Mute Michelle Corry #FBPE
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    Aug 21st 2020, 4:49 PM

    @David Clements: A guest contacted Liveline with those details

    45
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    Mute PΛÐÐY ЯOOПΣY
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    Aug 21st 2020, 5:26 PM

    @David Clements: Because the whole of Ireland is looki g to the Journal comments section for official guidance?

    9
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    Mute Kate Flaherty
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    Aug 21st 2020, 5:29 PM

    @David Clements: I don’t do “unsubstantiated here say”, and I most certainly don’t do what’s app!….

    18
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    Mute Kate Flaherty
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    Aug 21st 2020, 5:32 PM

    @Kate Flaherty: *hear.

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    Mute dowthebow
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:28 PM

    All our reporters and media presenters seem to be forgetting Sean O’Rourke was there as well, why??

    258
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    Mute Donal Desmond
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    Aug 21st 2020, 5:30 PM

    @dowthebow: His wife is a F.G.press officer.

    69
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    Mute GrumpyAulFella
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    Aug 21st 2020, 5:45 PM

    @Donal Desmond: she must be a good golfer.

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    Mute Conor Kennelly
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    Aug 21st 2020, 5:47 PM

    @dowthebow: Sarah McInerney mentioned him. On her last day and let out a priceless Jaysis before an ad break that wasn’t meant to be aired. She’ll be missed.

    35
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    Mute Ann Basquille Smith
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    Aug 21st 2020, 6:44 PM

    @dowthebow: the today programme on rte asked him on several times this morning as did liveline. Not sure how you or anyone could read and listen to every media source. So rather a broad statement from you.

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    Mute Luke
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:08 PM

    Legal, illegal
    Within restrictions or not
    Many hundreds of weddings have been cancelled under the guise such a loophole like a room partition didn’t exist
    It’s terrible optics for them to sit at tables of ten and do the exact opposite of limit social contacts as the public have been asked
    No matter what it was totally unacceptable

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    Mute LITTLEONE
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:09 PM

    Put in a partition.. Leave it open for speeches. Sure let’s call it 2 rooms. The politicians and judges and bankers etc will fall for the spin. Sure they love the spin themselves

    221
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    Mute Dan
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:10 PM

    Will look to book 4,5 rooms for a massive party….cheers for the tip

    155
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    Mute aidanshaw
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:25 PM

    @Dan: dont forget the partitions dan lol

    76
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    Mute Eugene Walsh
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    Aug 21st 2020, 3:43 PM

    @aidanshaw: sher Dan be able to shtick a few partitions under both arms, pop em up there in the one room, call it 4 rooms. Off ya go. Have a blasht Dan

    32
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    Mute Tom Quinn
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:33 PM

    Please don’t tell me this jolly was paid for or subsidised by the taxpayer.

    135
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    Mute MickN
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    Aug 21st 2020, 4:12 PM

    @Tom Quinn: I hope not, anger will go up many levels if it was.. This government would be over

    52
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    Mute Grainne Peoples
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    Aug 21st 2020, 8:21 PM

    @Tom Quinn: FOI request should be looked for. I think maybe it is, just by the nature of our beast/government

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    Mute Ray Martin
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:11 PM

    It should have been cancelled,end of story.
    Muppets

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    Mute Garreth mc mahon
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:51 PM

    @Ray Martin: why, if they followed guidelines they did nothing wrong. And I mean if. Optics are not laws

    19
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    Mute David Walters
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    Aug 21st 2020, 5:55 PM

    @Garreth mc mahon: They didn’t follow guidelines. That’s the point.

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    Mute Garreth mc mahon
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    Aug 21st 2020, 8:53 PM

    @David Walters: they did if it was in two separate rooms, it’s a technicality and can be classed as two separate events

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    Mute Jjohn Cconway
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    Aug 22nd 2020, 6:54 PM

    @Garreth mc mahon: it wasn’t two separate rooms. It was one room with a partition that was pulled back for the speeches. There was up to ten people per table and also a number of staff moving between tables. The number 50 for indoor events includes staff so this breached regulations on many different levels.

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    Mute Munster1
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:25 PM

    No masks and shaking hands.. Their arrogance is out of control

    144
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    Mute john lovern
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    Aug 21st 2020, 3:20 PM

    No they didint, and I guarantee you all this partition of the room malarkey wasnt offered to all the people that were supposed to getting married, hotels were saying 50 people max including hotel staff,so there was actually more than 81 if you included the staff, and I heard on radio today that the partition was raised for the speeches, are you telling me it went back down after,yeh right!,a man on the radio said he was there with his children and he saw them all arriving at reception, shaking hands no social distance

    81
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    Mute Shane Terry
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    Aug 21st 2020, 4:25 PM

    I had to have maximum of 50 people at my fathers funeral last week even though the church could have accommodated 4 times that amount and still maintained adequate social distancing. Everyone who attended that golf event or who was part of the organisation of said event should be sacked and fined.

    93
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    Mute l
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:46 PM

    Red herring. It was one room with a screen, well over the 50 allowed on the old system. It was removed for the speeches ffs. Clowns were abusing the system before the changes.

    92
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    Mute Pauline Fedigan
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:07 PM

    OFF COURSE THEY DID???????

    71
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    Mute Logan Shepherd
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:10 PM

    @Pauline Fedigan: LOOKS LIKE YOUR HOUSE PARTY JUST GOT THE GREEN LIGHT PAULINE ..

    120
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    Mute BriP75
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:32 PM

    Any way who won the golf

    61
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    Mute Brigid Smith
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    Aug 21st 2020, 3:42 PM

    They should all be tested today and quarantine until results come back.

    70
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    Mute David Clements
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:07 PM

    This is what happens when you cause confusion. I hope the government now realise that, seeing as they’ve had a pretty decent kicking all day….

    80
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    Mute Stephen Fitzgerald
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:12 PM

    @David Clements: it will be the usual matra…move along nothing to see here, once it has died down all welcomed back with open arms. Lesons learnt – none. We get what we vote for.

    84
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    Mute David Clements
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:20 PM

    @Stephen Fitzgerald: I’m 42 and with the exception of the moment AJ Chopra walked down merrion street, I can’t remember a worse day for an Irish government in terms of self inflicted damage…

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    Mute David Clements
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:20 PM

    @David Clements: but it’s not a great time for an election

    5
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    Mute Bert Carolan
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:26 PM

    @Stephen Fitzgerald: Indeed we do get what we vote for. We get versions of ourselves and if our politicians are unprincipled, rule bending dodgemeisters what does that say about us?

    29
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    Mute Billy McNamara
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:36 PM

    @Stephen Fitzgerald: I did NOT vote for any of these spoofers and chancers.Yoy may have and I hope you have learned your lesson.Vote SF for a proper government next time.

    41
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    Mute Bert Carolan
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:47 PM

    @Billy McNamara: It’s a done deal that Sinn Fein will be in power next time. And it will be correct.

    33
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    Mute Denis Rohan
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    Aug 21st 2020, 3:37 PM

    Is the the Irish Hotel Federation or the Government that are in charge of trying to manage Covid 19. Last time I checked it was what passes for a Government. GUBU comes to mind.

    53
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    Mute Michael Burke
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    Aug 21st 2020, 4:39 PM

    Did Phil Hogan travel from a locked down county to get to this event? Journalist on radio earlier said he may have been staying in Kildare.

    50
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    Mute Donal Desmond
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    Aug 21st 2020, 5:34 PM

    @Michael Burke: Yes he stated that. Essential travel only as county in lockdown…Don’t think a FF/FG golf piss up would be included in essential travel.

    33
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    Mute Richard Griffin
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    Aug 21st 2020, 4:30 PM

    Who paid for this event?

    39
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    Mute Caoimhín Ó Seanáin
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    Aug 21st 2020, 5:26 PM

    Can’t we check the security cameras? Aren’t they all over the place in hotels?

    36
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    Mute Peter Cuthbert
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:29 PM

    Assume to allow tracking all attending signed a list ,hopefully its doesn’t lead to another localised spread or close down of the County
    Sounds like Alice in Wonderland

    33
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    Mute Michael Burke
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    Aug 21st 2020, 4:50 PM

    Did Phil Hogan travel from a locked down county to get to this event? Journalist on radio earlier said that he may have been staying in Kildare!

    31
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    Mute GO GREEN
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:36 PM

    Too many died, too many people have suffered, to listen to this crap, that is pouring salt on the wounds, just to give the elite a special position, not to obey the rules. They all should resign asap. This is a wrong statement says Journal its – its 7 out of 10 toxic.

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    Mute Mick Costello
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    Aug 21st 2020, 5:30 PM

    Has big phil proved he isolated for 14 days before attendance at this shindig??? The hotel is as guilty as the rest of them here but prob got told you be alright lads

    31
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    Mute Donal Desmond
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    Aug 21st 2020, 5:40 PM

    @Mick Costello: He isolated in Kildare ..that county is in lockdown. Seamus Woulfe has issued a statement stating he knew nothing about the dinner that was to take place later… Lucky he had a suit handy ..and walked into a room with 80 people plus staff. Why did he not leave ?.

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    Mute Jim Buckley Barrett
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    Aug 21st 2020, 5:02 PM

    So if you open the partition doesn’t that make it one room?

    How was the hotel ensuring that they weren’t mixing? In that situation networking would be to priority for everyone attending.

    26
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    Mute Aidan O' Neill
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:26 PM

    50 at any one time. People could easily mix between them then. Turning into some blame game.

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    Mute 8-Bit-Relic
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:16 PM

    They have probably asked the Oireachtas who organised the event and went for the more profitable solution.

    22
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    Mute Gavin Mckenna
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:11 PM

    @Ann Illing: Hello Gem gem. Bad day at court this week? Good woman!

    72
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    Mute Kem Trayle
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:30 PM

    @Ann Illing: “Collective evolution” – oh the irony. The huge, massive irony.

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    Mute Garreth mc mahon
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    Aug 21st 2020, 2:54 PM

    @Ann Illing: quick question do my eyes deceive me or seriously, did your parents named you after a certain rear position

    18
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    Mute Helen Farrell
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    Aug 21st 2020, 5:32 PM

    GUBU. Appalling judgement by hoteliers, attendees, those involved in any way whatsoever as so many attendees are people responsible for drawing up safety guidelines for the country.

    19
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    Mute Ray Martin
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    Aug 21st 2020, 5:36 PM

    Why didn’t the IHF just ask the dogs in the street,they could have told them it was wrong.Are you fit to be an organisation advising anyone

    21
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    Mute Pauline Cahill
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    Aug 21st 2020, 4:57 PM

    Wonder why I don’t believe that

    16
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    Mute Sal Paradise
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    Aug 21st 2020, 4:51 PM

    Why are the Gardai getting involved if it is only guidelines being breached? Has an actual law been broken? Not sur eit is a good use of Garda resource to be asting their time with these clowns when we all know nothing will come of it.

    18
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    Mute Alan McDonagh
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    Aug 21st 2020, 5:34 PM

    FF FG LAB and RTE the cosy corruption of Ireland.
    Do as I say NOT as I do !!!!

    23
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    Mute GrumpyAulFella
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    Aug 21st 2020, 5:49 PM

    @Alan McDonagh: don’t forget the Shinners attending funerals and hugging supporters also. They’re all in it.

    14
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    Mute Hilda Harte
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    Aug 21st 2020, 5:53 PM

    If all this is true about 2 separate dining rooms and social distance was upheld why would you resign…………. guilty as hell

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    Mute BriP75
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    Aug 21st 2020, 4:55 PM

    Balls on a plate sums it up

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    Mute Patricia Tsouros
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    Aug 22nd 2020, 5:41 AM

    So Phil Hogan is either blind or was unable to assess the situation at the dinner – which was not in compliance with government guidelines. I am concerned he holds the position he does. To quote Stephen Donnelly ‘it was wrong’ and the dogs on the street would have coped that.

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    Mute Hilda Harte
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    Aug 21st 2020, 7:44 PM

    If all social distancing was adhered to and 2 rooms was used why resign….. wink wink I think

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    Mute Syl Farrell
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    Aug 22nd 2020, 9:19 AM

    At the time the event was held only 6 people were allowed at a private function. This was effectively a private party and was not open to the public so was well in breach of the guidelines.

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    Mute Joe
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    Aug 21st 2020, 4:07 PM

    Storm in a tea cup.

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    Mute Richard Carroll
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    Aug 23rd 2020, 2:03 PM

    Greedy hotels

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    Mute Tom Burke
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    Aug 21st 2020, 5:03 PM

    Did the federation get clearance for 10 to a table?

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