MEA Borough Council to hold special meeting on refugee crisis

The meeting was proposed by Councillor Patrice Hardy during a full council meeting at The Braid on September 7.

Seconding the proposal, DUP Alderman Gregg McKeen asked: “What are the benefits of MEA having an additional meeting to discuss this, what powers, what can we do?

“I am not against it but is there any specific information? As Mid and East Antrim Council we are saying it is a terrible situation they are in and what can we do?”

Chief Executive Anne Donaghy said: “We have probably all heard the speech from David Cameron in terms of moving forward in terms of 20,000 people in the next five years.

“Council will be taking that forward in terms of the resourcing of that.

“At this stage it will take some time to find out how things are going to unfold in Northern Ireland.

“Allow me to find out how we can support this and I will bring this back to the next meeting and we will have a way forward of what we can do to help.”

Councillor Stephen Nicholl added that having a special meeting at this stage would be in the “absence of information ” and asked that more could be found out before going any further.

A vote was passed to hold a special meeting on the issue on an unspecified future date.