Mayor of Limerick Kevin Kiely, has come under attack for what has been described as insensitive remarks made by him in a national newspaper.

Mayor Kiely was reported as having said that unemployed people should be put to work sweeping the streets in return for social welfare payments.

Meanwhile, MEP Alan Kelly, hit out at the mayor for calling for the deportation of Eastern European workers if they are unemployed for more than three months as outrageous.

The Mayor said: "We are borrowing €400 million per week to maintain our own residents and we can't afford it. During the good times it was grand, but we can't afford the current situation unless the EU is willing to step in and pay for non-nationals."

The mayor's comments sparked a storm of debate across the country and dominated national and local airwaves.

The Limerick Today show on Limerick's Live 95FM was inundated with calls and texts about the interview with many listeners expressing their support for the mayor.

However Mayor Kiely was strongly criticised in political circles for his comments.

"The country is in economic turmoil at the moment and we as policy makers have a responsibility to come up with solutions, but racist comments like this have no place in the discourse and I believe that Cllr Kiely should now resign", said Alan Kelly.

There are over 20,000 people unemployed in Limerick, including 10,000 males over the age of 25.

Mayor Kiely, has apologised for any offence he caused when he called for the deportation of EU nationals who have failed to find work in Ireland.

He has also withdrawn the controversial remarks.

The mayor added: "I still am of the opinion and so are others, that have approached me in recent days, that there is abuse of the Irish social welfare system. But in seeking to highlight this I inadvertently caused offence to others, which I very much regret."

Mayor Kiely

Former Fine Gael MEP John Cushnahan urged Mayor Kiely to withdraw his comments.

"I deeply regret the comments made by Cllr Kevin Kiely, the Mayor of Limerick. I consider them to be unacceptable and as a former Fine Gael member of the European Parliament I wish to totally disassociate myself from them," he said.

Defence Minister Willie O'Dea said: "The thing about it is, there is free movement in the EU. We can go to other members states in the EU and they can come here. That's the law. There is no need for the mayor to resign. He's entitled to his opinion like everybody else."

Doras Luimni, the local support group for migrants in Limerick,said it is deeply concerned at and outraged by the mayor's comments.

"EU nationals did not cause the economic decline and these are dangerous comments from the first citizen of Limerick.

Migrants are in integral part of our community and contribute economically, socially and culturally to Limerick city and county.

We know his comments do not represent the majority voice of the people of Limerick but they must be retracted," said Karen Mc Hugh, CEO of Doras Luimni.