Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

At the outset, I wish to state that the spate of burning buildings nationwide in response to plans to use these buildings for emergency accommodation, or even the mere suggestion or rumours suggesting that they will be used for emergency accommodation, is repulsive and reprehensible. I say this as a TD who grew up in a village where criminals attempted to burn one such building. There is no defence for such an action. These isolated actions on the part of a handful of criminals do not reflect the will, position, earnest goodwill and heartfelt willingness to help others among the vast majority of Irish people.

Having stated the obvious here today, I also need to articulate the view that the public feels underwhelmed and disappointed and is losing faith in our ability to address the immigration challenge. For the past two years, we have fumbled the issue and dropped the ball on multiple occasions. We have isolated, frustrated and angered small communities, including some of the most reasonable and humanitarian people you are ever likely to meet. The public is frustrated by our failure to get ahead of the immigration crisis. Most reasonable people will now accept that immigration is now one of the biggest challenges facing modern, progressive and wealthy countries, among which I include Ireland. Matters are compounded further by issues such as the war in Ukraine.

We came into this Government committed to ending the blight of direct provision in this country. At the time, we were processing about 2,500 applications for international asylum per year. Today, we have 104,000 Ukrainians here with temporary protection status and 13,227 immigrants sought international protection here last year. As long as extreme poverty, deprivation and the climate crisis persist in some of the world's poorest countries, Europe will remain a destination of choice for those fleeing poverty and persecution. We should not be an outlier with our EU peers when it comes to immigration. If an EU bloc country lists a particular country as a safe country of origin, then there is no reason why it is not deemed safe here also.

The public see us fumbling with the crisis. We are now looking at a number of large reception centres around the country but only after we have dispersed thousands into the most isolated and sometimes wholly unsuitable corners of Ireland. As bad as direct provision might have seemed, we now appear to have created a much worse system entirely of our own making. It is dividing a country and sowing divisions among scores of our communities. The Irish people are largely fair, pragmatic, tolerant and the first to reach out to those fleeing persecution. We need to ensure that we operate a fair and compassionate rules-based system for assessing international protection applications that can be completed within a six-month period. If that means ramping up staff in the Department and new, additional IT supports and systems, then so be it. As soon as the numbers fleeing the war in Ukraine started to scale, we should have seen this as an issue. It escalated to a new level 18 months ago. We should have initiated and followed through at that time on plans to provide large accommodation facilities on disused State lands while applications were being assessed in that six-month window.

A handful of people and a number of foreign entities are making millions through the leasing of properties to accommodate international protection applicants. Many of these properties, such as local hotels, were providing essential services to many local communities. We have pulled the hearts out of many of these small communities and have set back tourism in these areas by a decade or more. Many of these opportunists, who are capitalising on the back of misery and despair that has travelled to our shores, are doing so with no regard for these local communities and making no effort to invest in those local communities or to share any of the lucrative money they are getting from this Government.

On almost every metric, we are out of step with or trailing our EU peers when it comes to immigration policy. We are too slow to process applications and we have proven to be wholly ineffective when it comes to deporting those who have failed in their applications. We have been laissez-faireand far too tolerant with airlines and ferry companies that fail to comply with their obligations under section 2 of the Immigration Act 2003 by failing to ensure that each person they carry into the country has with him or her a valid passport or other equivalent documentation which establishes his or her identity and nationality. We need to fine these companies into compliance. If one looks at the safe country list of our EU peers, we are way out of step. I welcome the recent additions to the list of Algeria and Botswana. I have seen no compelling reason for why a country deemed safe on mainland Europe has not the same standard in Ireland. In this regard, a new EU migration pact is a step in the right direction as a nation and as we try to draw breath and get to grips with an unfolding crisis. I welcome recent comments by An Taoiseach that we will opt to pay a financial contribution rather than accept more immigrants under the terms of the pact.

At the outset of my contribution, I referenced the recent attempted arson at the former convent building in Lanesborough, County Longford. That same town hosted hundreds of Turkish workers who came to live in it while building a new power station there almost 30 years ago. That is the town where the local schools are now an eclectic mix of cultures and nationalities, all learning together and focused on an Ireland truly for all.

However, the fact remains that we as a Government have heretofore been overwhelmed by the immigration challenge. The challenge will not dissipate and it behoves us as a Government to recalibrate, look to Europe, replicate what is working there and implement a policy that protects those fleeing war and poverty while at the same time rebuilding the goodwill and earnest support of hundreds of our communities nationwide.

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