Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity. I thank the Minister for staying in the Chamber for the duration of this important debate. Between November 2018 and February 2024, there have been 22 incidents of arson and nobody has been convicted. I welcome that the Minister said in her speech that the Garda is taking an active approach and that some people have been arrested. However, for the attacks in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022, there have been no convictions. We gave free rein to the idea that a building can be burnt down, which I absolutely deplore.

I will talk about asylum seekers and the deliberate of blurring of words - immigration, asylum seekers and refugees - and why it is important not to do that. Before doing that, I have no hesitation in absolutely condemning arson. I come from Galway city. I described a meeting a few years ago on a proposal to move asylum seekers into a hotel in Oughterard as the worst in my life. We have had the latest burning down at the Ross Lake House Hotel. I was of the opinion that building was not suitable in any event. However, there was absolutely no justification for what happened. We got notification from the Minister at approximately 3.50 p.m. on a Friday and I understand a barricade and other items were erected within an hour of that. Nobody emailed my office or sought to talk to me, as a representative, to outline their concerns. I have an open office and would have been happy to listen to any of their concerns about the lack of integration - but not about single men being a danger. It is a very dangerous narrative and the Government should put it to bed.

I have only to think of the horrible domestic violence figures we see month after month. I can think of many other examples, yet we continue to allow this narrative about young men being dangerous.

It is important to note asylum seekers are fleeing war and persecution. They make treacherous, unsafe and lengthy journeys at a terrible personal cost. According to the International Organization for Migration, 29,087 people have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean Sea alone. I have said on record I do not think I could ever swim in the Mediterranean again because we are standing idly by while the bodies pile up somewhere in that sea. A total of 110 million people have been displaced worldwide, of whom 43.3 million are children, due to wars, conflict and climate change, and for many other reasons.

Ireland's direct provision system was brought in in 2000 as a temporary measure. I sat on the Committee of Public Accounts and was never impressed with the Department of Justice officials coming before me at the time. They were utterly unprepared to change the system that was to be temporary. We had Judge Mahon's report with all its recommendations followed by Catherine Day's very good report, the one flaw in which was that it stated the solution was housing in the community. That was never going to happen because the report was published in the middle of a housing crisis, which has intensified since. Following that, we got the very welcome White Paper, which stated we would stop direct provision by 2024, would gradually lead into that and not have direct provision and would construct centres to house asylum seekers, deal with applications swiftly and move on. That has never happened.

To put it in perspective, we have approximately 26,000 people seeking asylum in Ireland, separate from the Ukrainian refugees - or whatever name we give them. That is all. If this country cannot cope with 26,000 asylum seekers, we are totally lost. Within that number, approximately 6,000 have status but have no place to go.

The people from the Ukraine were openly welcomed by Irish people but the Government in its wisdom decided on a two-tier system so we treated people from Ukraine fleeing the illegal war and invasion by Russia utterly differently and we allowed a narrative to develop: Ukrainian people fleeing war, good; people fleeing from other countries, not so good. They got less money and respect and almost 6,000 have been left almost locked up with nowhere to go after getting status. The two-tier system is appalling. I know it will stop now but it has caused a huge amount of damage.

I live in a city with two direct provision centres. The privatisation of that for profit has led to millionaires making a profit on taxpayers' money and it has stymied the integration of those who are dying to work.

Then we have confusion about immigrants. This country has been kept going by immigrants working everywhere from hospitals to the retail sector. We should not be confusing all these words. It is wrong and dangerous.

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