BERKELEY — Contrary to some recent social media posts and a press report, students from Ireland do not face systematic discrimination when trying to rent an apartment here, a leading Irish diplomat says. And there is no backlash against Irish students in the wake of the tragic collapse of a balcony at a downtown apartment building last year that killed five young Irish people and one Irish-American and badly injured seven more, Philip Grant, Ireland’s consul general in San Francisco, said Wednesday.

“The sentiment in Berkeley toward Irish students is very welcoming,” Grant said, adding that it has been so for the more than two decades that the students have been coming to the area in large numbers on so-called J-1 visas under a U.S. State Department-sponsored program that allows young people to work or study in the United States. He also noted the intense outpouring of grief from Berkeley residents after the June 16, 2015 early-morning collapse of the fifth-floor balcony at the Library Gardens apartment complex on Kittredge Street that killed Olivia Burke, Eimear Walsh, Eoghan Culligan, Niccolai Schuster and Lorcán Miller, all 21 and from Ireland, and Ashley Donohoe, 22, of Rohnert Park.

Grant was commenting on a story earlier this week in The Irish Voice titled “Irish students not welcome in Berkeley, CA after balcony deaths,” available at bit.ly/1ZerT4i, which reported claims that Berkeley landlords are refusing to rent to Irish students on J-1 visas.

“There’s no truth in it,” Grant said, adding, “If (Berkeley) were a hostile environment, the students wouldn’t come here.”

He said about 700 Irish students come to the Bay Area every year on J-1 visas out of a total of 7,000 to 8,000 nationwide.

According to the Irish Voice report, “Many of the young Irish denied housing have expressed their anger to Irish media outlets about the banning because of the balcony incident and the general reputation for partying that Irish students have.”

Grant said Irish students face many of the same difficulties finding housing in Berkeley’s notoriously tight real estate market as American students. They may have an even harder time, as a matter of logistics, providing documentation from sources abroad of income, bank accounts and other proofs of ability to pay rent.

The frustration of a prolonged, unsuccessful apartment search can lead to erroneous conclusions, Grant said.

“Don’t make the mistake of adding up one and one and coming up with three,” he counseled.

Grant suggested that Irish students with J-1 visas contact the Irish Immigration and Pastoral Center in San Francisco for help finding an apartment. The center’s phone number is 415-752-6006 and its website is www.sfiipc.org.

The Irish Voice story quoted Paraic, a student from Limerick, saying he and a group of friends had secured an apartment at Library Gardens and “had everything sorted, deposit ready to go.”

“And then he said” — it is unclear whom “he” refers to — —‰’Oh, sorry, are you actually Irish?’ Straight away there was an excuse,” Paraic is quoted.

An inquiry to the rental office at Library Gardens was forwarded to Tim Cook, media coordinator for Greystar, the company that manages the complex. Cook said Wednesday he needs to research the matter before commenting.

Contact Tom Lochner at 510-262-2760. Follow him at Twitter.com/tomlochner.