Sinn Féin immigration stance ‘very clear’, McDonald insists, as Coalition seeks to tighten rules

“Stretches and strains” in the public service and “particular issues around housing” must be considered when it comes to how many work permits are issued to foreign workers, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has said.

The remarks come as her party’s immigration policy faces scrutiny after a book by a former Sinn Féin insider detailed its difficulty in forming a position on the issue.

An extract from Ourselves Alone: Sinn Féin Behind Closed Doors by former party press officer Siobhán Fenton was published in the Sunday Independent last weekend. Fenton wrote that in meetings “Sinn Féin’s politicians described feeling deeply uncomfortable about not listening to working-class communities but also uncomfortable about siding with anti-migrant rhetoric”. She described it as “a circle the party couldn’t square”.