Googlebox Ireland star Yemi Adenuga has blasted Noel Grealish for comments he made earlier this week, insisting: “He should say sorry.”
Yemi, who moved here with her family from Nigeria in 2000, said the under-fire TD’s remarks would be “laughable” were they not so dangerous.
Mr Grealish, who has gone to ground, sparked outrage when he claimed African migrants were coming to Ireland to “sponge off the system here”.
Yemi, who works as a business strategist, told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “What he said is absolutely unacceptable and he needs to retract it. That is the kind of speech that will incite hatred.
“That will get people angry for all the wrong reasons and they will start to fight for something that doesn’t even exist.”
Yemi became the first black woman to be elected to Meath County Council in May.
Her husband Deji is an actor and the family, who live in Navan, Co Meath, are a popular feature on Virgin Media’s Gogglebox Ireland. Yemi stopped short of calling for Deputy Grealish’s resignation, saying: “He is a TD and he should be mindful of his position and be careful of his position.
“He should explain himself. He can’t just drop a statement like that and go to ground.”
On Friday Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the Independent TD, who votes with the Government, should retract his inflammatory statement.
A video of Mr Grealish addressing a crowd in Oughterard, Co Galway, about plans for a direct provision centre in a nearby disused hotel
was widely shared.
He said: “If you watch the news and you listen, and even our Taoiseach three weeks ago said he’d take in an extra 200, eh what do you call, migrants from Africa.
“These are economic migrants. These are people that are coming over here from Africa to sponge off the system here in Ireland.” Yemi said: “How can you call Africans spongers? I am Irish, there are thousands of African people who are here paying their taxes and working.
“The bottom line is what he said is unacceptable and he needs to retract it. I think he should apologise. He said, ‘those’ people. Who are ‘those people?’
“He’s creating segregation. I don’t see how he can be sitting in that position as a TD when he doesn’t have respect for other people.”
Meanwhile, Green Party deputy leader Catherine Martin has called on Mr Grealish to “come out of hiding”.
She described his comments about African migrants as “appalling, divisive and inflammatory”.
Ms Martin said: “This is a really dangerous comment from an elected member of our national parliament as it’s giving license to say, that is OK.
“And it certainly is not. These are our most vulnerable people, fleeing from unimaginable circumstances.
“I would say that the deputy who these remarks are attributed to should come out of hiding as well because he hasn’t been seen and I think this deserves to be confronted.
“You just don’t land a punch like that on the most vulnerable and then just go away.
“There are many people who wish to address that with the deputy, but at the very least, he in question needs to come out and give a full apology.
“That’s the very least that needs to be done.”
