Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

Like most people, I want to see a situation where we can provide shelter and safe harbour for those fleeing violence, war and famine. Like most people, I believe this country should be the good Samaritan in times of need. It must be said that many refugees and migrants have been welcomed successfully in communities in most parts of the country.

However, I will address today's debate. It is possible to show compassion to those who really need it and yet seek a sustainable and robust system that cannot be abused. It is possible to seek compassion for those who need it and still be critical of the Government's policies. The idea that critics of the Government's policies are in some way xenophobic is absolute nonsense. It is a cheap defence of disastrous Government policies over the years. Raising legitimate, genuine concerns, as Deputy Troy mentioned, is not a threat to cohesion. The disaster in housing, health and transport is the threat to cohesion.

The first issue I will speak about is the lack of information that surrounds this debate. This is one of the key problems at the moment. It is incredible that there are many debates on radio stations, on television channels, in homes, in workplaces, on sports fields and so on, but this is the first dedicated specific debate we have had on this issue in this Chamber as far as I can remember. We are Teachtaí Dála. That literally means we are the messengers of the people to this Dáil. It is unhealthy democratically for there to be such a chasm between the concerns of the people and the issues being debated by Deputies in this House. One of the reasons for the lack of democratic debate on this issue is that an enormous amount of name calling is associated with it. We saw it a few minutes ago. People are often afraid to speak. Debate is purposefully stifled at times by those in the political extremes for their own political agendas. It is not accidental. It happens by design. Many on the political extremes are using name calling and throwing slurs around like confetti and they do so to inhibit debate and discussion. The engine of a functional democracy is the competition of ideas. People can challenge and debate issues respectfully without fear or favour. The best ideas are then selected as solutions to problems and as the way forward. However if debate is shut down, censored and a chilling effect is created, the competition of ideas is prevented. In fact, the debate is pushed below ground. People who have genuine concerns are pushed into the hands of people who seek to do damage.

A Fianna Fáil Deputy stood up this week in the Dáil and supported the provision of supports to refugees but also said he wanted a robust application system. He was accused by People Before Profit and by the Social Democrats of dog whistling. There is a McCarthyite feel to this. Even when people do not say something, some people will strategically misinterpret what was said and slur those people to shut them down. The far right and the far left need each other. They want to turn the Irish political system into a massive battle of these two extremes. However, the vast majority of the population, middle Ireland, wants a common sense solution to this crisis. Name calling is not a cost-free exercise. It inflames the situation and we are currently seeing reports of attacks on both sides by both sides. We need cool, calm heads, to deal with this respectfully and we need light, not heat, in this debate. As I said, most people want to help in these areas and plenty of great organisations have been helping.

We pay credit to the churches, grassroots communities, clubs and organisations on the ground helping those integrate.

The Government handling of the process has been a mess and it is very important to say this. The issue of consultation is very important. There is a complete lack of consultation happening in many areas. People need to be treated with respect. They need to be treated as adults. They need to be listened to and spoken to. If we give them the information, we are far more likely to have successful outcomes in these situations. I am thinking of an example in Loughrea in County Galway where rumours were circulating on whether O'Dea's Hotel would be used for asylum seekers. People wrote to local councillors and Deputies. All of them came out stating vehemently that there was not an ounce of truth to the rumours. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, wrote to constituents stating she was in contact with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and that O'Dea's Hotel in Loughrea would not play an active role in housing refugees or IPAS asylum seekers. A couple of days later, Deputy Cannon said that was not true.

This is happening all over the country. There is no confidence or trust. The Government is burning trust when it does not speak to people honestly about what will happen in their areas. In Lismore genuine people were annoyed because the hotel in the centre of the town was to be used to house refugees. They were annoyed because the authorities did not come to discuss it with them. They said they could have been part of a solution to find accommodation that would not have put the livelihoods of people in the local area under threat. The Government did not help in this area.

This needs to be said. Why is it the case that most of the accommodation is being located in working-class areas? This is an incredible situation. We should have an even and fair distribution of people who need refuge in all socioeconomic backgrounds. I have been a long time in politics and I have to say I am cynical. It is the nature of being around politics for a long period. It is hard for me to accept this is purely accidental. That is the God's honest truth. We need community dividends for these communities. If people in a working-class area are already suffering from the lack of housing, GPs, school places and transport and the State brings 500 people into an area that is already deprived of investment, it will cause stress among some people. A community dividend and a real-time investment in housing, education, transport and GPs will ameliorate this stress. The Government has spoken about the €50 million community recognition fund. How much of that has been spent? I bet I am not wrong to say zero has been spent at this moment in time. The roll-out of this money will be very slow because that is the way the system works.

The application process is also shockingly slow. This is not good for the people seeking asylum. It is definitely not good with regard to scarce resources. People seeking asylum are waiting 18 months on average to get asylum. Some 5,000 asylum seekers have been waiting for longer than two years for their applications to be processed. It has taken three years for 1,000 applicants to have their applications processed. It is incredible that there has been a person in the system for 14 years whose first application has not been processed. I am not speaking about appeals. We need a system that is working. That needs investment, staff and resources.

Newstalk reported that 5,000 asylum seekers arrived in Ireland without valid travel documents last year. That is 40% of the number of people who came into this country. I am not saying for a second that all of these 5,000 people are not real in any way whatsoever but the truth of the matter is that this figure is higher than the total figure going into the Netherlands without documents or on false documents, even though the Netherlands has a population three times what we have in this State.

All we are saying is that people want the system to be robust. They want a system that can differentiate in a speedy fashion between those who need asylum and those who do not. There is a cost to this. It costs €18,568 a year to provide accommodation for those seeking asylum. If we extrapolate this to the 5,000 people who are without documentation or have false documents, it adds up to €141 million a year. At present, 14,000 people have applications for processing pending. Those who destroy travel documents to confuse the system or slow it down should be sent home. It should not be controversial to state that a person who breaks the law should not get asylum in this State. Dysfunction in the application process is the responsibility of the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.

There is also a question about what happens when a person is deported. My understanding is that when a person is deported it is usually left up to that person to leave the country. I understand there is no way for the State to check whether the person has left. This means we do not have a process that can guarantee deportation has happened. Perhaps the Minister might clarify that.

If we are going to provide services, and I believe we should, and resources for people who seek asylum, they should also be available to Irish people in need. If we differentiate between Irish people and newcomers, we will sow division in society. There is an incompetency with regard to how the Government is providing accommodation for asylum seekers. The modular homes were promised in October. I do not believe there is a modular home standing with a family in it as of yet. Through a parliamentary question I submitted, I found out that 34 properties were purchased by the Department to house people with asylum. The latest information I have is that only one is of use. A total of 500 properties were identified last April for use by people who need asylum. The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, appeared on "Prime Time" just before November and said that only ten of those 500 properties were in use. Of the people who offered their own accommodation and a room in their own house to help somebody with asylum, 85% of the offers were never activated. People still contact me to state they put their names down last April as willing to give a room in their house and nobody has contacted them, even though I phoned the authorities to try to make this happen. There is a major difficulty in this regard.

I want to speak about unaccompanied minors. This is a very important issue. I understand there are 208 children in the State who have been granted protection or who are applying for protection. These are the most vulnerable people. These are the people for whom your heart would break. They have left war and they are on their own in this country without the support of their parents. I understand some of them are in residential care and foster placements. Since 2017, 45 unaccompanied children have gone missing in the State. The reply to a parliamentary question I received in recent days indicated that ten children are unaccounted for in the State. This is a shocking dereliction of duty with regard to people who are most vulnerable.

We must do our best to help people in need of safe harbour but it must be sustainable and managed. There is a question of physics. There is a question of the incompetency of the Government with regard to housing, health and education itself being a physical block to being able to provide for people. Reality and common sense must also play a part in this.

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