‘My Language Was Insensitive And Did Upset People’

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Letter written by Fine Gael councillor Emer Higgins to residents on Friday, April 4, 2014; front page article about the letter in the Lucan Gazette; Ms Higgins with fellow Fine Gael politicians Kenneth Egan, left, and Frances Fitzgerald, right

On April 4, 2014, Fine Gael councillor Emer Higgins wrote to residents to say she was “delighted” to announce that ten purpose built houses in Ballymakelly were not going to be bought by the council for a Traveller Accommodation Scheme.

It’s since resurfaced as she prepares for the by-election in Dublin Mid-West on November 29.

Last night.

In a statement to the Irish Examiner, Ms Higgins said:

“Straight up, this was about the council moving forward with new plans in an estate which hadn’t even met the conditions of the first scheme.

“In 2014, when the country was littered with unfinished ghost estates and negative equity, distressed mortgages and repossessions were a big fear in my area.

“My language was insensitive and did upset people and I apologised for that at the time.”

By-election candidate apologises for comments on Traveller housing scheme being scrapped in her area (Irish Examiner)

Previously: Emer’s Delight

I’ve Been Smeared

Pic: Lucan Life

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14 thoughts on “‘My Language Was Insensitive And Did Upset People’

  1. Dr.Fart

    i’ll get scorned for this, or broadsheet facists won’t even post it. but anyone who’s lived in tallaght will tell you the travellers there are a nightmare. and if my local councillor got social housing put in instead of traveller accom i’d be relieved too. she’s done her constituents a service there. they’ll probably know a lot of the people who would be moving into the social housing, whereas if it was travellers .. you’d be living under duress daily.

    the problem is though, you have councillors everywhere trying to look after their own patch, so the needs of many are not catered for, just different factions all dogging out to look after their own. the only solution is to evacuate athlone, turn it all in to traveller accom. you could also put other people its hard to house, like repeat offenders and stuff.

    thoughts?

    1. Holden MaGroin

      Why stop at Athlone? Why not procure an island of some kind? Maybe we could put the gays and sick people there too? Hell lets hunt them all for sport.

      Thoughts?

      1. Dr.Fart

        disagree. well, i’m very into the island idea. it’s even better than repurposing athlone. but i strongly disagree putting sick and gays there. they pose no threat to society at all, and should be cradled in the bosom of society instead. it’s the unrepentant and unrelenting dangerous folk i propose to put on the island. id genuinely vote in favour of that if it somehow came to it.

      2. Otis Blue

        Not forgetting the migrants and other spongers. Fupp them too.

        Either we include Roscommon with Athlone or we’re gonna need a bigger Island. Achill, maybe?

        Thoughts?

        1. Dr.Fart

          again, its only dangerous people id put on the island. like repeat criminals, travellers etc. Achill is too nice, i think we’d have to make an island. kinda like rykers island. so when theyre on it they cant get off it. otherwise its pointless. with all their “ah its a few giving us a bad name” they’ll soon see what a nightmare they all are when theyre left alone in a colony. we’ll give them enough resources so they could grow food, build etc., if they work together. go out after a year and mark my word, most of em will be dead and they won’t have built a thing.

          1. Brother Barnabas

            it’s a great – indeed, beautiful – idea, and expressed most eloquently

            suggest though that we use an island close enough to the mainland that the rest of us (good people) could stand on the shore and observe them – and they’d be worth watching because it wouldnt be long before they’d start eating and/or riding one another

            dalkey island ?

          2. Dr.Fart

            brother barnabas: i think we could have hidden cameras all over the island and broadcast it as a show on RTE, this will also save RTE. It’ll be the most watched programme of all time. Imagine! … “we’ve put 2000 of irelands most unsociable people on one island. we’ve given them the resources to grow and flourish .. but will they? or will they just kill, eat and ride each other?”

          3. martco

            other bonus with Dalkey Island is the flow thru the sound there is particularly vicious so you could have some craic watching any escapees getting swept away…maybe bonus being possibly rescued & dropped back by Rescue 116 to keep it interesting

            coulda also gone for Irelands Eye. ohno wait, it’s private.

            or maybe Lambay Island. ohno wait, private again.

            (Cark lads be along now whingeing about why does Dublin always get the good stuff)

            hm. who’d get to be on the board running this?

  2. GiggidyGoo

    Maybe these stalwarts of society should put a disclaimer/apology at the end of all current and future documents/releases.

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