The mayor of Tileagd has criticised Ireland and his village's Roma community as about 100 of them arrived back in Romania after spending several weeks encamped on a roundabout by the M50 motorway at Ballymun.
"In the first place, Ireland was negligent to let them in," Garlagh Groza told The Irish Timesin Tileagd, a village of about 6,000 people in north-west Romania.
"They should have known from the way the Roma looked when they arrived what they were like and what they would try to do, and they should have stopped them entering the country.
"And if Ireland had been a bit more diplomatic it should have found a place where they were needed and let them work a bit, to see how they got on."
He denied that he could have done more to inform local people that they were not permitted to work or claim benefits in Ireland, despite being able to travel there visa-free since January, when Romania joined the EU.
"Since we joined the EU, people can go where they want regardless of ethnicity," he said. "Everyone has a right to live their lives as they wish . . . I can't tell people what to do."
Local officials said about 100 Roma returned from Ireland to the Romanian city of Timisoara on Wednesday night, accompanied by more than 30 gardaí on a flight paid for by the Irish State. They were then taken by bus to their homes in Tileagd and a neighbouring village.
The Romanian ambassador to Ireland and local officials strongly denied claims from some of the Roma that they lived in squalid conditions and were barred from regular employment by ingrained prejudice among Romanian bosses and workers.
"I implored them not to go and make a show of us over there [in Ireland]. But what heed did they take of that?" complained Mr Groza to local news website Bihor Online.
Poor education and age-old discrimination blight Roma communities across eastern Europe, and few of Tileagd's Roma earn a regular wage.
Most live in small, shabby houses with very large families. Conditions are very hard but not squalid.
Most of those who went to Dublin say they hoped to earn money to build a house, and funded their trip by selling their houses for about €700 each.
Kevin Hoy, chief executive of the Smiles Foundation charity that works with the Roma community in Tileagd, said many returnees were despondent to come home empty-handed.
"They sold what they had in hope of a better life and it backfired," Mr Hoy told The Irish Timeslast night.
"Some were pleased to see their family, but for many it will be tough to get over this."