DEPUTY MCGRATH,
I am writing to you to publicly request that you reply to multiple requests for comment I have sent you over the last six months, primarily but not exclusively regarding your involvement with anti-refugee campaigns in Tipperary. When I first contacted you in April, you did initially give me a couple of responses to some of my questions.
You have since refused to reply to any of my emails requesting comment on anything, and most recently, you blocked me from your Facebook page and deleted comments challenging you on your refusal to answer my questions. You haven’t given me the courtesy of a simple “no comment”. You have stonewalled my efforts to get your side of the story on public matters involving you.
You are an elected representative of the people of Tipperary, seeking re-election in the coming election as a TD for Tipp South. You are entrusted with the public duty to be our voice in the Dáil and you are asking voters to trust you to represent us again. I believe that as a journalist and a constituent, I am entitled to put questions to you, however difficult, and receive an answer. It is the least that transparency requires of you. The questions I have put to you are all on matters of public interest, and since you refuse to answer them privately, I am now putting them to you publicly.
I once again request comment on the following matters:
In an interview with Fran Curry on Tipp Today (24/04/2024), David Moloney of Tipp Town claimed that you personally told him of secret plans to develop the site of modular homes on Heywood Road in Clonmel into a “large detention centre for asylum seekers”. Mr. Moloney reaffirmed when questioned that he received this information from you.
Did you tell David Moloney there is a secret plan to build a detention centre for asylum seekers in Clonmel, as he stated on Tipp Today on the 24th of April?
Prior to the resumption of works on Heywood Road in June, after an arson and assault on the site in May, a supporter of the group who goes by Terry K online posted a tweet calling for people to support the CCR and join their occupation on the Heywood Road. He further claims the group received advanced information about the contracting of both site workers and security for the development, and that this information was “confirmed tonight from a sitting TD”.
Did you provide Clonmel Concerned Residents with advance information about resumption of works on Heywood Road in June?
Back in January, you told Philip Dwyer on a live stream that “if you work with Derek Blighe, you’re not working with me”. However, Cllr. Peter O’Donoghue of Fermoy LEA announced during the summer that he would be working with you two days a week in your office in Clonmel. Peter O’Donoghue has worked with Derek Blighe on several occasions.
Could you comment on your decision to have Peter O’Donoghue working with you in your office despite previously stating that you would not work with anyone who works with Derek Blighe?
Has your position on working with people who work with Derek Blighe changed?
On the 24th of July, members of Clonmel Concerned Residents aggressively confronted officers at an information drop-in session about the modular homes on Heywood Road at the Talbot Hotel. The officers had to leave the room as the protesters surrounded them, barked questions at them and began to read at length from the Constitution. Footage of the confrontation was circulated on social media in the days following.
Multiple witnesses present at the time claim to have observed you speaking with members of Clonmel Concerned Residents before and after this incident.
Can you confirm or deny that you spoke with members of Clonmel Concerned Residents before and/or after this confrontation?
If you did speak to members of Clonmel Concerned Residents, before and/or after, can you comment on what you said to them?
In reviewing the Dáil register of interests, I noticed that confusing responses are given in the “Contracts” section of your disclosures from 2017 to 2021 that leave it unclear whether your plant hire firm received any public contracts in those years, as it did in every other year you’ve been a TD.
Can you clarify if your firm received public contracts in those years, and if so, with what bodies?
Ms. Andrea Crowe of the “No to Dundrum” campaign stated at a public meeting in Dundrum on the 2nd of August that you spent two full days supporting the group in the High Court seeking an injunction to prevent the housing of asylum seekers at Dundrum House. As I’ve since reported, this injunction was a bogus legal effort concocted by a conspiracy theorist from Westmeath called Patrick McGreal, engaged in a years-long campaign of legal harassment against public officials.
Did you seek any independent legal advice on the merit of Mr. McGreal’s legal strategy before participating?
Did you or your office engage in any efforts to vet Mr. McGreal’s credibility before participating?
Regards,
Dean Buckley
Left in the Lurch 
