'Blame the bad old Brits' - DUP MP says that Dublin government is under pressure over immigration so its response is to turn spotlight on UK

​The party’s MPs also accused the coalition government, led by Fine Gael, of simply making up the claim that 80% of migrants arriving in the Republic are coming via Northern Ireland.

The claim has led to a tit-for-tat spat between London and Dublin, amid news that the Irish government has freed up around 100 gardai to help with deportations.

The UK government has been adamant that it will not accept refugees returning to Northern Ireland from the Republic, on the grounds that France – another EU nation – does not accept the return of migrants crossing the English Channel.

The matter was raised in the House of Commons on Wednesday, and after the debate North Antrim MP Ian Paisley told the News Letter: “The PM’s gut, instinctive reaction has kind of been the right one: why should we take your returnees? They’re yours. It’s your problem.

"It’s typical whenever there’s a problem interior to the Republic of Ireland, they always look for someone to blame, and why not blame the ‘bad old Brits’ – in the same way that Argentina, when there’s a problem internal to them, they always blame the Falklands and the Brits there.

"Ireland has played exactly at that, and it’s completely backfired.

"The figure 80% was completely and totally made up, just to appease people who are concerned about what the right-wing are doing in Ireland.

"It’s a complete diversion tactic.”

The Irish government has been under pressure from growing anti-immigration public sentiment amid concerns that the state does not have a handle on who is entering the country – added to which is the long-standing housing crisis in the south.

Mr Paisley also criticised Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald over the issue.

Amid speculation that her party’s base are substantially less pro-immigration than the leadership, she announced on Sunday that “Sinn Fein is not for open borders” – prompting the SDLP to dub her comment “a dog-whistle to the far right”.

Mr Paisley indicated that Sinn Fein have largely relied on silence as a response to questions on immigration, telling the News Letter: “And isn’t it amazing how Mary Lou, her lips are sealed tight nearly on this?

"She can hardly find a word to speak about it! Doesn’t know what to say! Normally you can’t get a word in edgeways.”

Mr Paisley’s comments were largely echoed in the House of Commons by his colleague Sammy Wilson, MP for East Antrim.

"This week, the Irish Government, in an attempt to divert attention from their own domestic failures on housing and immigration, have started a row about immigrants coming from the United Kingdom into the Irish Republic... it is the usual Brit-bashing exercise that they engage in.

"The minister [Tom Pursglove, junior migration minister] has been asked twice today but has not given an answer, so will he tell us what specific measures he will put in place to ensure that the cynical Irish Government do not simply bus immigrants to the border and dump them in Northern Ireland?”

“The situation he describes would not be appropriate,” came the reply from Mr Pursglove.

"That is a matter for the Minister for Countering Illegal Migration, who leads on that work within the Home Office.

"We have been clear that if there is a desire for a returns deal, that needs to be done with the EU in the way the British people would rightly expect.”

Mr Pursglove also told MPs what the government is doing to cub migration, saying “we have restricted most students from bringing dependent family members, increased the salary that most skilled worker migrants need to earn in order to obtain a visa by nearly 50% to £38,700, and stopped overseas care workers bringing dependent family members with them”.

He went on to add: “The latest estimates from the Office for National Statistics show that net migration in the year to June 2023 was 672,000 – 73,000 lower than it was six months earlier… these are encouraging signs.”

Sinn Fein and the Office of the Taoiseach have been invited to comment.