Immigration "absolutely has to be" an election issue, Ms Áine Ní Chonaill of the Immigration Control Platform said yesterday.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio, she said she was determined to make it an election issue, and it was "blackmail and intimidation" to say that raising the issue was exploitative.
"The real issue is who decides the demographic future of this country. Is it the Irish people who will decide it or is it, as currently, the Nigerians and the Roma who decide it?"
Ms Ní Chonaill refused to say if the Immigration Control Platform would be putting candidates forward in the general election.
The ICP was not a racist organisation, and she "absolutely abhorred" the idea of racial superiority. "Nobody is allowed in our organisation with such a viewpoint," she said.
Ms Ní Chonaill described the current Government policy on asylum-seekers as "a charter for invasion" and said it could not be allowed to continue.
The processing system must be replaced by one whereby decisions on immigration status were made while the applicants were still outside the country.
Ms Ní Chonaill said the established political parties were involved in a conspiracy to cover up the truth about the deportation of asylum-seekers.
