Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It has almost become a sick running joke at this stage that whenever a building is said to be earmarked for refugees or asylum seekers, the immediate response from some is, "I hope they have good fire insurance." There is a pattern to these arson attacks dating back nearly six years. They have only intensified in the last 12 months. More and more buildings are being burned. People are losing faith in the official response and its inability to stop these attacks. I went on RTÉ news one evening and said that I had spoken to the Minister only a week before, in this Chamber, and expressed my concerns about the possibility of that happening to a former nursing home on the edge of my constituency.

It is a miracle that somebody has not been killed or seriously injured. It is only a matter of time before someone is caught up in a blaze or a firefighter or some homeless person is injured or worse following these fires.

The burning of St. Brigid's, a former nursing home in Brittas, County Dublin, was another in a series of attacks on sites possibly earmarked for accommodation for refugees and asylum seekers. One of the questions I asked the Minister was if there was any truth in the rumour that St. Brigid's would possibly be used. The Minister said he was not aware of that and would come back to me. I went to him again, and there was no decision made about the site. I am not saying that to say I told you so, as if I have some great insight that this was going to happen. There were protests outside it and so on. I could not have predicted it but my concern was that I had seen it happening in other areas and did not want it to happen to that. I had been a supporter of the save St. Brigid's campaign since it was established at the end of the site's use. It was originally used for people with TB. It was gifted to the State. It was then used for women with dementia. When there was a possibility of closure, it was being used at one stage by Tallaght University Hospital as a step-down facility for people. It was then closed and was not being used. Many of us involved in the campaign said there was something almost spiritual about it. It was a beautiful setting. When you talked to families that used to go there, they said there was always something special about the building. It was burned down. These criminals say they are standing up for communities. I fail to see how burning down buildings and preventing them ever becoming a community resource achieves that. They are causing more harm to the communities than 100 refugees or asylum seekers will ever do.

There is a challenge there for us all. However, local communities cannot be expected to shoulder the burden. We have seen across the State the challenges that communities have been asked to take on. It is a badly worked out system. We need to come together collectively and come up with solutions for how we are going to do that. There has to be State-run accommodation. The reliance on private developers is a huge problem. People are becoming millionaires from the challenges we are facing with people fleeing war in Ukraine and other areas around the world. There needs to be a different approach from the State. It is pouring money into private hands to house refugees and asylum seekers when I think it should be doing it centrally. That is what we should be aiming for. In some towns you can see people driving around in big cars. They are making huge money out of this, and I think that is one of the causes of resentment. There are also challenges with people getting access to a GP or dentist. Again, people fleeing these countries have skills and medical backgrounds. We need to be quicker in that regard too. There needs to be a recognition that communities are struggling and a realism that we need a different approach to asylum seekers.

I do not think this is something that cannot be solved. I believe there needs to be a different approach. I know we are talking about the arson attacks, and I think there is a role for An Garda there. It needs to be covert and overt. There is genuine criticism about some of the things that have happened in many communities. It can be solved but we collectively need to have a different approach to this huge challenge of our century.

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