Members of Ennis Urban Council said last night that the town had enough asylum-seekers, requesting the Department of Justice not to send any more.
Debating the estimated 600 asylum-seekers living in the town, the council chairman, Mr Frankie Neylon (Ind), said Ennis was a magnet for asylum-seekers and Travellers, and the town was seen as a "soft touch".
A Fianna Fail councillor, Mr Michael Guilfoyle, said the number of asylum-seekers living in Ennis in accommodation provided by the health board had pushed up dramatically the cost of rented accommodation. "Someone is going to have to shout stop. We are running out of accommodation for our own people," he said.
An Independent councillor, Mr Tommy Brennan, said: "We have enough of asylum-seekers as a percentage of the town's population. We must write to the Minister for Justice to point that out and request him not to send any more."