A DEMAND that a team of New Zealand sheep shearers who are alleged to be illegal immigrants be deported from Ireland was made yesterday by a Government backbench TD.
The Westmeath Fine Gael TD, Mr Paul McGrath, has claimed that the New Zealanders have no work permits and no entry visas, and are pulling the wool over the eyes of the authorities.
According to Mr McGrath, one group of New Zealanders based in Co Westmeath has been working extensively on sheep farms around the midlands and west. "I know for a fact that young farmers' sons who were trained by FAS to shear sheep cannot get jobs because of the operation mounted by these illegals," he said.
"I submitted a series of parliamentary questions and discovered that the group is not registered under EU law, Justice tells me they have no entry visas and Enterprise and Employment say that no work permits have been issued to non-EU nationals," he said.
He feared that the Westmeath based group was not the only "black sheep" shearers' group from New Zealand in the country and said he had been getting reports that there might be at least two other groups.
One sheep shearer in the west said last night that he was aware of three teams from New Zealand shearing along the west coast for the last two months. "We call them the All Blacks because they are better than us, not only at shearing but at rugby too. They shear for 11 months a year and we are only at it for two," he said.
He said he understood that New Zealanders and some Australians used the cover of sheep shearing competitions to get into the State and then they did not leave until the shearing season had finished.