Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

During Leaders' Questions last March, I called on the Taoiseach to clarify if Government had conducted any assessment of the impact of disability respite services following the commitment to provide disability-specific accommodation to citizens fleeing war-torn Ukraine. I have not received an answer three months on and still await one. Today, however, I ask if the Government has conducted any similar assessment of the State's capacity to deliver housing to its own citizens, in light of the enormous rise in inward immigration, international protection and asylum applications.

As I understand it, the numbers arriving into Ireland are now at the rate of 1,500 per month. I am conscious this is a difficult and sensitive issue and we must tread carefully if we are to avoid blame being targeted at those who least deserve it. However, I am convinced that if we do not learn to find some way of exploring in a grown-up, pragmatic and constructive way the links between unsustainable levels of inward migration or asylum into this State and housing, then we will never find a meaningful solution to an already overwhelming crisis.

Government can produce all the strategies it likes around housing and it can commit to implementing White Papers, ending direct provision and ensuring that nobody, regardless of nationality or origin, is left to sleep on hotel floors but all of this is utterly meaningless if we do not find a way to make the immigration and asylum system more robust and fairer to everyone, citizen and non-citizen alike.

Over the weekend, Michael O'Toole of the Irish Mirrorreported that there has been a phenomenal rise of 700% in one category of immigration alone. In an article in The Irish Timesheadlined "Housing supply buckling under extra strain of asylum seekers", Harry McGee reported one Fine Gael Deputy describing the impact of the UK Government's Rwanda policy as "a runaway train coming down the track at us, and we have no way to stop it". All of this means that Ireland's capacity to provide even the bare minimum of emergency accommodation and shelter to its own citizens and those genuinely fleeing war is being severely undermined.

We can no longer bury our heads in the sand when it comes to these issues. Our political system must find a way to talk maturely and openly about these issues without fear. The Minister will be aware that, in May, the Government was warned that the arrival of tens of thousands of refugees posed a risk to social cohesion and integration, particularly in deprived communities. That risk will be massively increased and will continue to grow and become more widespread unless we seek to ensure that our barely functioning immigration system is brought under control. Does he agree that it would be a lose-lose scenario for everyone involved and particularly for those who have now been homeless for some time if we did not bring this under control quickly?

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