A former Fianna Fáil Cavan Councillor has publicly declared his support for the two councillors in Galway who had their homes raided by Gardaí at the weekend. Fianna Fáil councillors, Noel Thomas and Seamus Walsh were raided by local gardaí and members of the National Criminal Bureau of Investigation and their electronic devices seized. Gardaí said the searches were in relation to the arson attack of Ross Lake House Hotel, a property earmarked as accommodation for asylum seekers in their area. Around the same time Tánaiste and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin described as "absolutely unacceptable" comments made by one of the councillors who questioned the government's immigration policy.
During Monday's Cavan County Council meeting Independent Councillor O'Reilly Called the garda raids "reprehensible" and "abhorrent" and said he wanted to "publicly declare his support" for his counterparts in Galway. He said the plans to house refugees in rural Rosscahill were "the same as Cavan's Castletara or White Horse [Hotel]" and the aim of the raids was to "shut down and frighten anyone who dares question the narrative." Cllr O'Reilly's motion to call for an "urgent meeting with the council's representative organisations" to "make sure this doesn't happen again" received support from other councillors.
"Unfortunately, if that's the way things are going to be dealt with going forward, I think it will stymie debate, it will stop public representatives from engaging with their communities and representing their communities in a vociferous manner," Cllr O'Reilly told Northern Sound, "and it will certainly stop public representatives from attending protests or anything else and I think that's wrong. That defies the logic of civil leadership and also defies what we're elected to do."
Councillor Brendan Fay said he attended a protest against housing asylum seekers in Castletara and he didn't "want anyone showing up at my door for supporting someone in my constituency." Cathaoirleach Phillip Brady agreed the council should write councillors' representative bodies and request a meeting to advise councillors going forward.
