SINN Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald was involved in a blistering on-air row with RTÉ's Today with Philip Boucher-Hayes. She accused the interviewer of being rude and argumentative during the interview, and nit-picking rather than trying to understand her party’s attempts at bringing some solution to Ireland’s growing immigration issue.
Mary Lou McDonald was on RTÉ Radio 1 to discuss the international protection policy document launched by Sinn Féin.
In the interview she said that international protection applicants should not be accommodated in areas where resources “have already been cut to the bone” and where the use of food banks was commonplace. She reiterated to Philip Boucher-Hayes that centres for vulnerable people such as asylum seekers should not be placed in “deprived, struggling areas that have been neglected by successive governments”.
She said: "A person fleeing conflict and trauma needs support ... if you have any basic common sense, you do not place that person in a community and in a setting that is stretched to the bone, where the food banks struggle.
"That is not a good idea. It's not a good idea for the applicants, and it is not a good idea for the community." She added that communities are not looking for a veto, “but for fairness, common sense and their voices to be heard”.
The Sinn Féin president then went on to discuss audits in communities to ensure they have sufficient resources to facilitate asylum seekers and more “consultation”.
Mr Boucher Hayes interjected saying: “People might misunderstand from listening to you that these audits are actually happening already. This data is being used and there is a process of engagement and consultation that is ongoing.”
Mary Lou McDonald immediately responded, saying: “No, no, no, no, no, no, no. No no, I have to refute that. I have to refute that absolutely.”
The interview continued, and tensions between the pair continued to rise. Mr Boucher Hayes put it to Ms McDonald that Sinn Féin’s policy of moving away from privately owned asylum accommodation to publicly owned accommodation — one of the planks of her party’s strategy — was similar to what the coalition government under Taoiseach Simon Harris has already committed to.
She responded by saying: “First of all, I have to say to you or your tone with me in this interview is extremely rude,” but continued, saying: “Be that as it may. The government may claim that this is their approach. It is something that they have failed to do. This was signposted five years ago by Catherine Day and they still haven't done it. I'm less interested and I would have thought as a journalist and a broadcaster you would be far more inquisitive, not simply around what the government is saying, which you're very happy to repeat ad nauseam, than actually what the government is doing or in this case has failed to do.”
The RTÉ interviewer the asked Ms McDonald about the costing of Sinn Féin’s various proposals, to which she replied that she did not have the exact details to hand. “This is a policy document,” she said. “I lead the opposition. I'm not the minister. I'm not the responsible party in government at this point.
“We have set out, I think, very clearly, a very balanced, a very clear methodology and approach and values for dealing with this issue.”
But Philip Boucher-Hayes countered by saying that a policy document without costings was in effect a “wish list”. Ms McDonald responded: “No. Policy document sets out the policy apparatus, the frameworks and the approach.
“I will listen with interest, Phillip, and to your colleagues as to when you have others setting out policy proposals and a similar demand for exact costing line by line. That’s not what policy documents and position papers do. You really should know that.”
Philip Boucher-Hayes responded by saying that his approach to all politicians would be robust and vigorous interviewing.
Ms McDonald subsequently posted on X: “I look forward to @rtenews 'robust' interviewing of government ministers and representatives.”
