Presidential candidate Peter Casey has come under fire today after saying that he believes Irish Travellers should not be recognised as an ethnic minority.
The businessman, who lives in Donegal, said Travellers having a special status in Ireland is “a load of nonsense.”
“They are not from Romany or whatever,” Casey told The Floating Voter Podcast on Independent.ie.
He also described Travellers as “basically people that are camping on someone else’s land” and argued that: “They are not paying their fair share of taxes in society.”
Casey said that he sympathised with ‘the poor farmer’ if members of the travelling community camp on their land.
Casey said: “Imagine the poor farmer whose land that they camped on, and who’ll buy the land from him?
“The neighbours in the houses all around – do you think they’re sitting there going ‘this is great for my property value because I’ve now got three dozen caravans down the road’.
“It’s just wrong, and I think somebody needs to sit up and say this is nonsense.”
There have been calls for Casey to withdraw from the Presidential campaign following his remarks.
Pavee Point, the Traveller advocacy group, described the comments as “grossly insulting and offensive”.
President Michael D Higgins told Morning Ireland that he was appalled by Casey’s comments.
President Higgins said: “Recognising the ethnic status of travellers was a wonderful opportunity to begin looking at all of the issues of inclusion… all of this important.”
Presidential candidate Gavin Duffy also reacted to Casey’s comments, saying they were “reckless and inflammatory” and asked him to withdraw his remarks.
“I think his comments are reckless and inflammatory and have no place in a campaign for election of First Citizen,” Duffy said.
