Cllr Liam Galvin: Unemployed eastern europeans should go home
ABBEYFEALE councillor Liam Galvin has called for unemployed Eastern Europeans claiming unemployment benefit to be sent home, stating that a week's social welfare money could cover their airfares.
Cllr Galvin said that 20 houses in an Abbeyfeale estate of 80 houses which he canvassed had Eastern Europeans as residents.
"I am by no means racist, and I would like to help everyone, but I say that the time has come to take people aside and tell them that they had been very welcome here when the good times meant that work was plentiful," said Cllr Galvin.
"But the time has come to say straight out that we as a country cannot afford all these benefits and that these people would be more than welcome back in five, 10 or 15 years from now, whenever things have picked up again."
Cllr Galvin said that the Government should examine the options and come up with a scheme to encourage such people to leave.
"The equivalent of a week's social welfare would more than pay for the air fares," he said. "This country is bankrupt and somebody has to shout stop, because we can't afford to go on the way we are going. I see the day when people will go along to the local post office to find the doors locked, because the money just won't be there."
Cllr Galvin also said that he believes that a considerable amount of fraud is also being committed through the wrongful claiming of entitlements on the part of foreign nationals.
He has been told, he said, that taxi drivers are picking up foreigners at the airport and driving them straight to the welfare office and straight back to the airport again.
"But the Government is taking every easy option, such as means testing old age pensioners and sending inspectors into places looking for TV licences. They'd be far better off sending in inspectors to see how much welfare and other payments are being received fraudulently," he said. "We have to realise what is going on."
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Friday 25 May 2012
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