Taoiseach Enda Kenny said he "unreservedly'' condemned remarks about immigrants made by US presidential candidate Donald Trump.
“We have 70 million people ourselves worldwide who claim Irish ancestry,’’ he said. “Many of those were deported or left because of economic circumstances.’’ He added that many left because of colonisation and the consequences of the great hunger. “It is something very deep in the Irish,’’ he said. “I commend again our naval personnel, who have taken from the waters of the Mediterranean over 7,000 people, men, women and children.’’
Mr Kenny was replying to People before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett who said they should roundly condemn Mr Trump's language. He said Mr Trump had accused Mexico of "exporting its rapists and criminals'' to the US.
“What is very relevant to the undocumented Irish is that he has called for the expulsion of all 11.3 million undocumented workers in the US,’’ he added.
Mr Boyd Barrett said it was the same Donald Trump, "whom the Minister, Deputy Michael Noonan, met in Shannon Airport in May 2014 with a red carpet, harps and people in traditional Irish dress in what was frankly, even at the time, quite a ludicrous show of deference to this multibillionaire''.
He said Mr Trump had turned out to be somebody who was whipping up an outrageous and dangerous hysteria against the undocumented, including the Irish.
“Do we regret rolling out the red carpet for a man who would say this about immigrants in the US ?,’’ he asked. “Will we condemn what he is saying ?’’
Mr Kenny said, in life and in politics, “sometimes one must meet people with whom one disagrees.’’
They might be very wide differences of opinion, he said, adding Kennedy met Khrushchev, Reagan met Gorbachev, the Pope met Castro.
