'We can take no more' - Roscommon senator tells public meeting on refugee numbers

A Roscommon town can't take any more international protection applicants due to a lack of resources, Senator Eugene Murphy has told a public meeting. 

He was at a meeting of approximately 150 people in Spell’s pub in Ballaghadereen which was organised in light of proposals to build 47 modular homes off the Circular Road.

"It is absolutely 100 per cent right in everybody's mind to say, no we cannot take anymore," he said.

"There must be back-up for the doctors and the schools," the Fianna Fail Senator said. "The money has to be pumped in. You cannot take any more people," he said. 

"I'm not going to allow this to happen. It shouldn't happen and I will stand with you on it," Senator Murphy told the public meeting. 

Ballaghadereen had taken more than its share, Senator Murphy said. "You're not being one bit wrong. You're not being one bit racist saying we have had enough," he said. 

He gave the example of a recent car crash in the area, which took gardaí an hour to attend to. He said there should be no more people brought to the town until there is a garda station operating on a 24 hour basis in the town.  

"If you are going to increase the population of a town significantly, surely you need a full-time garda station," he said.