DUBLIN CITY COUNCILLORS have passed a motion pushing back against Tánaiste comments claiming that many in emergency accommodation do not have any right to housing.

In the motion brought by Labour councillor Darragh Moriarty, Fine Gael leader Simon Harris was accused of “blatant efforts to scapegoat” migrants for the Government’s failure to meaningfully address the housing and homelessness crisis.

Over Christmas, Harris said that there are a “significant number” of people in emergency accommodation who not have a right to housing, linking it too migration numbers being too “high”.

“A lot of people who are in emergency homeless accommodation, or certainly some people who are in emergency homeless accommodation, don’t have a housing right in Ireland,” Harris told the Irish Times last month.

Councillors also backed comments made by the chief executive of the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) which manages homelessness services for the four local authorities across Dublin.

“If they can’t establish a right to housing they don’t get emergency accommodation and are sent on their way,” Mary Hayes told the Irish Times last month.

The councillors strongly disputed the Tánaiste’s remarks, accusing him of “blatant efforts to scapegoat and demonise migrants for his Government’s decade and a half of failure to meaningfully address the housing and homelessness crisis”.

They have now called on the Fine Gael Dublin Lord Mayor Ray McAdam to write to his party leader Tánaiste to defend the position of the Dublin Region Homeless Executive and “call out the Tánaiste’s blatant attempts to blame migrants for his Government’s own failings”.