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INDEPENDENT TD NOEL Grealish has been accused of engaging in “disgraceful racism” after raising questions in the Dáil about money being sent out of Ireland.
Grealish told the house that he wanted to bring the Taoiseach’s attention to “the amount of money that is being transferred out of Ireland in personal remittances”.
“Over the past 8 years alone over €10 billion has left this country by way of personal transfers, this is a staggering amount of money,” he said.
The top five countries where money was transferred to over the past eight years include €843 million to Lithuania, €1 billion to France and the top three countries; €1.54 billion to Poland, €2.7 billion to the United Kingdom and €3.54 billion was sent to Nigeria.
“Taoiseach, transfers to other EU countries I can understand, for example money being transferred to the United Kingdom, our nearest neighbour, with over 100,000 British people living in Ireland and over 10,000 Irish students in the United Kingdom.”
The Galway West TD said the source of his figures was the World Bank.
“But Taoiseach, €3.4 billion transferred to one non-EU country is astronomical,” he added.
Has Revenue or the Department of Finance any way of tracking this money or where it is coming from? Can I ask you Taoiseach are there mechanisms in place to ensure that the money that leaves this country in personal remittances has been fully accounted for with the Irish Revenue and tax system and is not the proceeds of crime or fraud?
In response, the Taoiseach said that he doesn’t doubt Grealish’s figures but added: “I’m not sure where you’re going with this”.
“Everyone in this house will know from the stories their parents told them or their grandparents told them that for many decades or centuries Irish people went all over the world and sent back their remittances to Ireland,” Varadkar said.
I know you mention a distinction between those going to EU countries and non-EU countries, but just walk a few metres across Merrion Square to Holle Street hospital, you’ll see a hospital that is full of midwives from India and nurses from the Philippines and doctors from Egypt and Pakistan and I don’t know where. And they work hard and pay their taxes and out of their post-tax income they send money back to their families who probably paid for their education.
Responding to the Taoiseach, Grealish said: “I know a lot of it, an awful lot of it is genuine money but I want to ensure a commitment from your government that there are proper controls in place”.
The comment prompted howls of disapproval in the Dail with Ruth Coppinger TD standing up to say it was an example of “disgraceful racism”.
“Sit down, you’re a disgrace,” she added.
Grealish was previously criticised claiming that refugees the government had agreed to settle in Ireland were “economic migrants” from Africa who would come to Ireland to “sponge off the system”.
Varadkar and Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan had both on Grealish to withdraw the remarks.
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And no doubt the tiger will be destroyed through no fault of his own. Zoos are awful places
I don’t think it would be standard practice to put the animal down in such a case.
I don’t understand why they can’t fire a dart and put the animal to sleep each time they’re going in to clean its enclosure. Perhaps the darts are expensive but how much does a human life cost?
Perth Zoo in Australia is the only zoo in the world that has a program for breeding and introducing Orang-utans back into the wild. Mates there are some terrible zoos with poor conditions but the good zoos are vital for conservation and the survival of endangered species.
I think that might take a toll on the animals health. It’s the equivalent of a general anaesthetic.
But I would have thought they’d at least shut the animal up in a separate part of its enclosure from the area being cleaned.
Tigers are endangered and, despite being caged, it’s still a wild animal. They’re not going to kill it ffs.
They won’t kill it – it was doing what wild animals do. There was clearly a failure of usual health & safety procedures. It’s eerily similar to what happened in South Lakes Zoo in the UK a couple of years back.
That’s amazing, the second one in a week or so. You’d think people would be more careful in such a dangerous job.
I had a dream last night that I was being stalked by a pride of lions and now this.
I’m going to be real nice to the cat.
The lions represent the FG and labour party stalking you and hunting you down. you need to confront them
OMG
These big animals should be roaming the wilds with their families and not locked up in zoos.
We used to bring the kids to the zoo to see the animals as a matter of education and a good day out.
No need anymore as you can see them up close and personal now in the wonderful nature documentaries!
If they were in the wild they’d be dead. Sad but true.
They would all be grand if humans had left them alone!
Was “#mauled” really necessary for the article?
What else are you going to call it. It’s the right word.
It’s certainly an appropriate word for what happened the ‘boks yesterday.
Smiley, they’re referring to the use of the hashtag #mauled, not the word itself.
People go on about dublin zoo.how great it is etc. Went last week with young daughter for first time in 20 years. Was appalling the size of their enclosure especially the Tigers. Will never set foot in another zoo
Another gruesome case of tiger gang violence in southern hemisphere zoos. It’s a similar scenario to human prisons where gang members, eager to earn their stripes and zoo cred callously attack zoo screws often resulting in death and back slashing.
The Tigers have rights. A dirty protest and hunger strike usually works.
This tiger was a dissident tiger and was in way connected with republicanism.
Another one.
Sure most zoo animals suffer from depression.fact. dublin zoo or any other zoo are no better than them in SeaWorld. Low life’s making millions out of suffering of animals
WHere is the outrage and the mass protests?
They will have to demolish the enclosure because the place will become haunted.
have your say