Monaghan villages will be swamped by "busloads" of Dublin commuters who will "devastate" the local economy if large-scale rezoning goes ahead, Monaghan County Council has heard.
Villages in south Monaghan will be "taken over by Santry people" and people from the "big suburb of Rathgar" who are only interested in "the euro", Independent councillor Vincent P Martin said. "I am not sure if I want them in this county if they are driven by the euro. They are not coming in for the love of the county."
Mr Martin was speaking at a council meeting in Carrickmacross yesterday to debate the draft Monaghan County Development Plan. Councillors have voted to rezone large tracts of land surrounding villages in the county against the advice of county planners and the county manager. Mr Martin has voted against several such rezonings.
Mr Martin's comments were "bordering on the racist", county mayor Padraig McNally (FF) said. Mr McNally said he welcomed anybody to Monaghan as long as they were "decent people".
"If the people of Dublin want to reside in Monaghan, let's have them", he said. He added that there were "big advantages to a large population".
Sinn Féin group leader Brian McKenna said that he rejected Mr Martin's "racist comments". It was the sort of language that led to attacks on foreign nationals, he said.
Robbie Gallagher (FF) said he would be "delighted" to have people from Santry or any other part of Dublin in the county.
Mr Martin emphatically rejected any suggestion that he was a racist and said that Cllr McKenna "doesn't know what a racist is". Councillors were attempting to zone land for houses before there was sufficient infrastructure in place to cope with an influx of new residents, he said.
"We are zoning far too much land, way beyond any projections for the county, leaving it open for people from beyond the county to come in." However, he said he welcomed "appropriate growth" in the county. "Of course we all welcome people but it has to be appropriate to services. There won't be the schools. We are opening up the floodgates."
Fine Gael councillor Hugh McElvaney said the council should be trying to make Monaghan "more attractive to people".
Seán Conlon (SF) said there were organisations throughout the country actively trying to get people to move to their counties.
Matt Carthy (SF) said schools in Monaghan were closing down because there were not enough pupils. He agreed the county needed extra facilities.
Mr Martin said he would welcome "with the red carpet" as many people as could be reasonably accommodated in Monaghan.
However, he said: "I don't want a chicken and egg situation, rezoning like there is no tomorrow. You don't move on this until you have looked after the young people that we have."
A motion to dissociate the members of the council from Mr Martin's remarks was passed by a majority of 19-1.
Earlier, Mr McElvaney accused county manager Declan Nelson of threatening councillors with calling in the Department of the Environment because councillors had made rezoning decisions against planning advice.
"I feel under threat. There is a slight wee veil of threat from the county manager that the Department of the Environment might be called in."