Hogan 'resents' discrimination claims
The Environment Minister Phil Hogan says he resents and regrets claims against him of discrimination.
Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and the Irish Traveller Movement have all hit out at Minister Hogan for making representations against the allocation of a house to a Traveller family in Co Kilkenny.
He is defending the decision however, insisting he was only passing on concerns he received from constituents and asserting that other public representatives made similar representations.
Hogan, speaking at the Ploughing Championships in Wexford, also denied that it amounts to racism or an abuse of power: “If families make representations to me as a local deputy I have to respond and give that information which they may not have been aware of in the local authority offices.
“Ultimately, they decided to house the family with special conditions on their tenancy.
“This has nothing to do with Travellers at all, this is to do with anti-social behaviour. I resent and regret that they made that comment.”
Yet the Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, also speaking at New Ross, says that Hogan’s actions were fundamentally wrong, racist and discriminatory.
He says the Minister needs to make an urgent Dáil statement on the matter but stopped short of calling for Phil Hogan to resign.
“What Phil Hogan did was fundamentally wrong, particularity giving his role as minister for environment with a responsibility for housing and community.
“He should be giving leadership in terms of integration, equality and bringing communities together, instead of promoting a situation which was basically about the discrimination of particular family because of their background and that they were Travellers.”
Earlier today, Hogan hung up when live on KCLR radio discussing the issue.
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