Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern has insisted he has \u201cno problem\u201d with people from \u201cthe Congo\u201d or Africa after footage surfaced of him speaking to a woman about immigration during a by-election canvass last week.<\/p>\n
Speaking to The Irish Times on Wednesday, he said, \u201cI\u2019ve no problem with people from the Congo or Africa or anywhere else. I\u2019ve good friends around Drumcondra, there\u2019s a lot of the clergy in from Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n
An online video appeared to show former Fianna F\u00e1il TD Ahern canvassing in Dublin, where he suggested there are “too many” people coming into the country, saying he’s worried about the “next generation” of Muslims.<\/p>\n
Ahern also said he had no problem with Ukrainians, but he had concerns about people arriving here from Africa.<\/p>\n
The former taoiseach’s conversation was filmed without his knowledge.<\/p>\n
Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin had said Ahern\u2019s opinions on immigration are not reflective of those of Fianna F\u00e1il.<\/p>\n
“I think it’s not appropriate, in my view, to sort of be specific about any given ethnicity. That’s not, in my view, correct or proper,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I think we have to respect people. We have many different ethnicities in Ireland, many Irish citizens with different ethnic backgrounds, and that has to be respected.”<\/p>\n
The chief executive of Doras slammed Ahern for what he said are “misinformed” and “damaging” comments about refugees in Ireland.<\/p>\n
Doras chief executive John Lannon told Newstalk that the video is extremely shocking.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s really important that people who are in positions of influence who are in leadership roles and seen as such within the communities act responsibly, do not amplify misinformation, misrepresentations or racism,” Lannon said.<\/p>\n
“He is, as I said, putting people\u2019s lives at risk and doing a huge disservice to all of the great people in his own community.”<\/p>\n
Fianna F\u00e1il\u2019s by-election candidate, John Stephens, is an ally of the former taoiseach and is contesting the election in Ahern\u2019s former Dublin Central constituency.<\/p>\n
The by-election will be held on May 22nd to fill the seat vacated by former Fine Gael minister Paschal Donohoe following his departure to the World Bank in November.<\/p>\n
The video shows a canvasser calling Ahern over to a doorstep to speak to a woman who \u201cwants to say hello\u201d.<\/p>\n
She raised concerns about \u201cglobalism\u201d and the \u201chordes of foreigners coming into our country\u201d.<\/p>\n
When asked about Muslim people, Ahern said he does not \u201cworry about this generation\u201d, but he does worry about the \u201cnext generation and the kids growing up\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s when I think the problem will be. I said this to [justice minister] Jim O\u2019Callaghan. That\u2019s where the problem comes,” Ahern said.<\/p>\n
The woman also told Ahern that she was also concerned about transgender issues and hate speech laws.<\/p>\n
She then told him that she had recorded him and was going to post it on social media, because she believed it was \u201cimportant that you’ve said that you disagree with Jim O\u2019Callaghan\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ahern denied that he had disagreed with O\u2019Callaghan, as the woman accused him of \u201cnot sticking up for the Irish\u201d.<\/p>\n
The woman then called Ahern a \u201cliar\u201d as he walked away from the door.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Ahern told the Irish Examiner that \u201cBertie wasn\u2019t aware he was being recorded until the end of the conversation\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern has insisted he has \u201cno problem\u201d with people from \u201cthe Congo\u201d or Africa after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-446861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}