Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, I called for a debate to be held in this House on the impact of inward immigration. The Minister with responsibility for immigration, Deputy Roderic O'Gorman, responded to say that we are currently providing accommodation to 64,000 people, many of whom are from Ukraine. He went on to list the 17,000 people who have come to our shores are fleeing from wars elsewhere. He listed in his response wars in Syria, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Eritrea, from where people have come seeking international protection.

The Minister failed to mention Georgia where 2,300 applicants have come in the first ten months of this year, representing a tenfold increase on 2021 figures. He failed to mention Algeria, which has seen the numbers of asylum seekers increase from less than 100 in 2021 to a staggering 1,318 for the ten months of 2022, an increase of more than 1000%. There are similar figures from Somalia, Nigeria and Albania. I am not sure if the Minister did not know the figures or if he was being deliberately misleading in his response. The Taoiseach dodged the question and he passed it to the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, so I am asking the Taoiseach the question today.

The International Protection Office, IPO, has witnessed a staggering 516% increase in new arrivals seeking asylum excluding those coming from Ukraine. That is an important figure, as these are not from Ukraine. No country can sustain such levels, particularly when we are in the midst of an unprecedented housing crisis, a massive health capacity crisis, which we have just spoken about, and a savage cost-of-living crisis.

Shockingly, 3,254 persons arrived in this State undocumented in the first eight months of this year. This is from a reply I received from the Minister for Justice who admitted that these passengers had presented documentation at their point of departure but were no longer in possession of such documentation when they reached immigration services in Dublin Airport. That is a scandalous situation, and they are the figures from the Department of Justice. Every sovereign nation has right to protect its borders and every State has not only a right but a duty and obligation to balance the needs of its citizens and its communities with the needs of those who are seeking international protection. A distinguished medical consultant in Tipperary, Dr. Mary Ryan, has expressed huge concerns about our immigration policy and the impact that it is having on the already overstretched and disastrous health service, and she has called for a pause. She is a well-recognised woman.

I am once again asking the Taoiseach if we can have an urgent debate in the House on this important matter or if a special committee can be established urgently to examine the impact the ongoing numbers of migrants into this country is having on our already overstretched and failing state services.

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