I ask the Tánaiste to condemn the blatantly racist anti-Traveller comments by Fianna Fáil Councillor Michael Crowe. The Galway councillor was on Galway Bay FM on Monday where he was opposing a house in Renmore being allocated to a Traveller family because of what he described as their vastly different cultures. He even went on to effectively justify the burning down of a different council house because it was going to be allocated to a Traveller family. It was absolutely blatant and disgusting anti-Traveller racism and it should be condemned by the Tánaiste, and also by the Taoiseach, given that Councillor Crowe is a Fianna Fáil councillor.

I also ask the Tánaiste if he recognises that this is just a very ugly side of an anti-Traveller racism which appears to be quite prevalent across the establishment parties at local authority level where, for example, every single year the one type of funding that is not drawn down by many councils is funding for Traveller accommodation.

I can absolutely assure the Deputy that this Government and I personally oppose racism in all its forms. I say that not just as somebody who is biracial but also as somebody who served on a local authority and never once voted against Traveller accommodation or social housing. I dislike the Deputy’s attempt to try to tar us all with the one brush there, which is unfair.

On those particular comments, I have not heard them and it would not be right for me to comment on comments I have not heard. I will listen to them and will, perhaps, come back to the Deputy at a later date.