Peter Casey refuses to back down over Traveller comments

Presidential candidate and businessman Peter Casey has refused to back down from controversial remarks made about the Travelling Community. The matter dominated the agenda yesterday and was a key point of dispute as all six candidates squared off on Virgin Media Television’s debate last night, hosted by Pat Kenny.

Peter Casey refuses to back down over Traveller comments

By Elaine Loughlin and Daniel McConnell

Presidential candidate and businessman Peter Casey has refused to back down from controversial remarks made about the Travelling Community. The matter dominated the agenda yesterday and was a key point of dispute as all six candidates squared off on Virgin Media Television’s debate last night, hosted by Pat Kenny.

Controversy arose after Mr Casey had claimed that Travellers are “basically people camping in other people’s land”, that house prices drop in areas where they settle and that they are “not paying their fair share of taxes in society”.

Asked about his comments Mr Casey said: “I am the only candidate who says what he believes, there is far too much political correctness in this society today.”

However, he admitted that he sometimes regrets his comments. He blamed Pavee Point, the group representing the Travelling Community for “poorly representing” a group of Travellers who refused to move into a development in Tipperary until they received commitments around having land to hold horses on.

“They let down the Travelling community. They should have gone down there and said ‘you are not looking good here’ and they should have represented the Travelling community.”

He claimed he had spoken to some councillors in Tipperary who said “they were essentially being blackmailed into giving them stables and they wanted an acre of land per house”.

This claim had been vehemently denied by Pavee Point earlier in the day who said the families were looking for land to rent to keep their horses on.

Mr Casey told RTÉ news it is “wrong” to encourage ethnic groups to feel they are different. “They are encouraged to think that they are different, they are not. They should think and act as Irish people, not necessarily as different to everyone else, then their children end up thinking that they are different and it’s harder for their children to fit into society.”

Martin Collins, co-director of the Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre, said: “Our president needs to be inclusive of all citizens and I would not have any confidence that he would be inclusive.

“These comments put Mr Casey’s presidential campaign on the same level as a local election where people play the Nimby (not-in-my- backyard) card to gain votes, as we have seen so often in the past.”

Mr Collins urged him to withdraw and added: “In the unlikely event that Mr Casey was elected as President it is obvious Travellers would not be welcome at Áras an Uachtaráin, which is sad in the light of the new era of recognition and inclusion in Ireland.”

Incumbent Michael D Higgins is favourite to win the race for the presidency when the country goes to the polls in just over a week. He told RTÉ that Travellers comprised an ethnic minority which experienced discrimination, adding: “I find these views appalling.”

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