The artist and presidential hopeful Kevin Sharkey has said that Europe’s “open-door” immigration policy threatens to “overwhelm” Ireland.

Sharkey has also criticised the current president Michael D Higgins for a “sense of entitlement”, and expressed concerns about Higgins’s age.

The Donegal native said he would use his presidential bid to highlight his concerns about immigration, and to campaign for the decriminalisation of drugs and prostitution.