BREAKING: Nenagh Councillor plans to urge Council to cease cooperation with Department of Integration

TIPPERARY county councillor, Nenagh man Seamie Morris, says he plans to urge Tipperary County Council to follow the lead of Mayo's local authority and stop communicating with the Department of Integration on the issue of accommodation for people seeking emergency accommodation.

Today Mayo County Council unanimously passed a motion calling on council staff to cease co-operation with the Department of Integration over the housing of asylum seekers and refugees in the county.

The decision was announced only 24-hours after footage and images of Garda Public Order members tackling protestors outside the Racket Hall in Roscrea have been broadcast around the world and fill the front pages of every national Irish newspaper today.

The motion taken by Mayo County Council was endorsed by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil councillors and says the non-co-operation should continue until an “agreed strategy is put in place to properly co-ordinate the provision of additional services for the communities hosting refugees and international protection applicants”.

The motion is not binding and Mayo councillors said the move was in response to building frustration over the number of Ukrainian refugees and asylum seekers being placed in the West coast county over the last two years.

A spokesperson for Mayo County Council said the motion would be circulated to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Tánaiste Micheál Martin, Justice Minister Helen McEntee, Integration Minister Roderic O'Gorman, all local Oireachtas members and councillors in other local authorities.

Tipperary Independent Councillor from Nenagh, Seamie Morris, posted on social media within hours of the decision by Mayo councillors that he will urge his colleagues in Tipperary to do the same.

Councillor Morris said on X (formerly Twitter) he is trying to stop the government's immigration policy which sees local representatives in rural towns receive no consultation or prior warning before accommodation is designated to be occupied by international protection applicants or Ukrainian refugees.

Meanwhile protests in Roscrea are continuing tonight into the sixth night of the demonstration mounted by local people after news began circulating in the town on Thursday last that the owners of Racket Hall had signed a 12-month contract to provide accommodation for 160 people seeking asylum.