CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES BY NON-NATIONALS GENERATE STRONG VIEWS AT TOWN COUNCIL MEETING

A call was made at last week’s meeting of Monaghan Town Council for tougher assessment procedures to be introduced in Ireland to prevent foreign nationals with criminal records from entering the country.

Some forthright views on the issue were expressed by Council Cathaoirleach Seamus Treanor when members discussed a motion tabled by Colr Robbie Gallagher.

Colr Gallagher moved: “That this Council calls on the Minister for Justice to review the criteria involved in assessing applicants wishing to enter the State to live, to ensure that they do not have criminal records in the country of origin or any other country.”

The Fianna Fáil representative stated that he would not like to think Ireland was seen as a country where people with criminal records could get easy access to, or that their justice system was seen as soft on crime and Ireland was an easy country to carry out crime in.

Referring to the murder of an Eastern European in Dublin in recent weeks, Colr Gallagher described the person concerned as “a major criminal figure” who had recently been …