Galway Bay fm newsroom - The Finance Minister has written to Galway West Deputy Noel Grealish asking him to clarify the 'apparent ethnic basis' of his comments about Nigerians.
Independent Deputy Grealish singled out the nationality while asking a question about payments leaving the country.
He suggested in the Dáil that hundreds of millions of euro a year was being sent from Ireland to Nigeria, querying whether this money was the proceeds of crime.
He was called a racist in the Dáil by other TDs, and the figures he cited from the World Bank are disputed by the government.
It says the actual amount of money sent from Ireland to Nigeria each year through personal remittances is 17 million euro.
Now the Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has written to the Indpendent TD Noel Grealish saying he was disappointed at the apparent ethnic basis of the question.
He said it's wrong to single out one country without evidence of wrong-doing.
The Minister called on Grealish to clarify his statement and said he's satisfied as Minister that measures are in place to ensure money leaving the country comes from legitimate sources.
Complicating the picture here is the fact that the government relies on Noel Grealish for support in most Dáil votes.
