Dáil debates

Tuesday, 23 May 2023

Accommodation Needs for New Arrivals: Statements

 

7:50 pm

Photo of John LahartJohn Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would ask the following of the Deputies opposite. If information were given to them, would they communicate it to their communities? Would they communicate the State's requirements of different communities in respect of the whole issue of refugees and asylum seekers? Would they drive that message home in order to accommodate the asylum seekers and refugees?

It can be tedious rehearsing the reasons we are here but I want to put them on the record again. The bulk of those who have come to our shores have done so as a result of the illegal invasion of a sovereign state. It is as simple as that. It is the result of the displacement of millions of that state's population and a scorched earth policy adopted by an aggressor that has weaponised the displacement of people in the hope of undermining the status, structure, solidity and foundation of the European Union. Representatives of that aggressor country must smile wryly when they hear a debate that seeks to undermine the efforts - albeit they are sometimes faulty - of the Government to accommodate numbers of asylum seekers we would never have envisaged, even when the war commenced. I commend the Government and the Minister. I stand by the Minister and the Government in the continuing efforts they are making and will have to continue to make.

My parents emigrated from this country in the 1950s and returned in the booming 1960s because they were able to do both. Quite a number of my siblings were born outside this country. One of my brothers emigrated to the United States 30 years ago. I have nephews spread to the four corners of the world. The following sounds like a cliché but it must be repeated. The President said it at the weekend at the national Famine commemoration and the Tánaiste mentioned it in an interview on Friday night. As a country, we have a collective memory of migration and seeking refuge. We are a country to which people have come to and moved from in substantial numbers over the centuries. The DNA of us all probably reflects that.

The world is in a spasm of involuntary movement. Millions of people have been displaced by climate change and poverty and, more and more, by conflict. No one I ever knew voluntarily left their home forever. I appeal on a human level to anyone listening when I say the vast majority of people who leave their homes are doing exactly that - leaving their homes. No one does that willingly. The vast majority of people do it involuntarily and cherish the desire of some day returning to that home.

I was involved, and hope to be again, as a volunteer in the Ukrainian hub in the Citywest Hotel. It is populated by the various relevant Departments of the State, including the Departments of Justice; Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth; and Health, as well as the HSE. It is also populated by scores of volunteers who help to give a very warm welcome to the visitors and their families. In the days I was there, those visitors were predominantly women and their children, and grandmothers. We would give them a place for the evening. Others were visiting through the international protection and accommodation services, IPAS. They do not pass through as quickly, which was a comment I made in correspondence to the then Taoiseach and the Minister for Justice. They are dispatched fairly efficiently to different parts of the country where accommodation is provided for them. Without those volunteers and the officials who work thanklessly around the clock, we would not have the kind of streamlined situation we have. It needs to be more streamlined still. I thank all of those involved. I also thank the schools in my constituency that opened their doors to migrant children. I thank the health service and the social protection services. The Cathaoirleach Gníomhach will appreciate there are villages and parishes throughout the country that have been insulated to some degree from the impact of this crisis. They have not had to take on additional pupils and the health services have not come under particular pressure. That needs to be noted.

I want in particular to champion the officials. We talk about having systems in place and consultation, about which I want to say a word. The officials are the front-line people who deal with these issues. They are charged with finding accommodation at very short notice. For them, the luxury of consultation may not be available initially. We do know, however, that without consultation, the process is delayed. Sometimes that process can seem unwieldy and with the best will in the world, and without wishing to judge anybody, I wonder would consultation with local public representatives always ease the way into the communities for people. We had an experience in Cookstown in my constituency. It was visited all of a sudden and what happened was that rumours built because no official information was being channelled. Consultation might seem time consuming and unwieldy but it must be done because we live in a democracy. This is not going to end and we have a significant part to play.

I am conceding time to Deputy Cowen. Many of the points I wanted to make have been made by previous speakers. I assure any of my constituents who are listening that any points they wished to be made have been made. I want to make and emphasise one point in particular. The over-reliance on hospitality and hotels for accommodation must end. I am aware of at least one facility in my constituency that has been made available. I have been aware of that for months. It needs some work. The installation would be considerable. That project seems to have stagnated. It does not seem to be moving. The Citywest Hotel is the Ukrainian hub and the hub for those people coming into the country and availing of IPAS. There are 1,100 rooms in the Citywest Hotel. Other hotels in the area were also providing accommodation. During the peak of the crisis, 2,000 beds were lost every night to the south Dublin county economy. That is an inestimable loss. It would be noticed in a rural town but would be less noticeable in the city. We are talking about the loss of bed nights and the effect on all the businesses that service a hotel, including caterers supplying food and drink, and printers. The Citywest Hotel is a major convention centre and has lost conventions and the spending power of all those visitors. There has been a loss to every business in the area, including the taxi industry. No one is crying for an end to hotel accommodation, and I am sure very generous deals have been done with the hotel operators. No one has asked me to say the following and I am not advocating for anybody but just looking at the situation, the loss to the economy of south Dublin is significant. I accept that we need a hub but the loss of jobs and employment can be taken for granted because it can be absorbed in Dublin and become invisible in a town the size of Tallaght, which feeds into City West. That business goes somewhere else, which is fine. However, that was a point I wanted to make. Retaining Citywest Hotel as the hub cannot go on indefinitely. The State needs to step up with a formal hub so that businesses can do business, tourists can visit and the economy can move in the way it is meant to move.

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