Sir, - As a constituent of Jackie Healy-Rae TD, I would like to join with many other letter-writers to your paper in recent days in completely dissociating myself from his remarks on asylum-seekers and refugees. He certainly does not speak for all of the people of South Kerry on this issue, as he claims to do.
Mr Healy-Rae's approach to this issue has been very cunning. He used the oldest political trick in the book by letting his son, Cllr Michael Healy-Rae, go out to bat on this issue a few weeks ago to test the political temperature, before he plucked up the courage to speak on the immigration situation himself. Having detected some favourable responses to his son's inflammatory remarks, which were not forthcoming in my view, Jackie chose to run with the political football.
Your columnist Medb Ruane (Opinion, May 5th) condemned the "political capital" being made by politicians, who have certainly "skimmed the surface of the issue". References such as Mr Healy-Rae's fear of "civil rumpus" certainly skim the surface of the problem and could be perceived as inciting people to engage in such "rumpus". A recent British study showed a direct correlation between such inflammatory statements by public representatives and increased levels of violence against immigrants in the UK. Perhaps the Healy-Raes should have considered the consequences of their disgraceful outbursts before the spoke.
Jackie Healy-Rae would be better occupied in lobbying the Government, over which he claims to have so much influence, to set up a proper system to accommodate the asylum-seekers and refugees entering the country at the moment. There lies the real solution to the problem, in my view. - Yours, etc.,
Owen G. O'Shea, Glen Ellen, Milltown, Co Kerry.