Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Ireland has long stood by the principle in international and European law that those who need to seek refuge must be afforded the right to do so humanely, fairly and according to the rules of the international system that we strive to uphold. Recent years have seen an unprecedented combination of contributory factors — some one-off, others due to fundamental shifts in migration patterns over the longer term. Between those fleeing the war in Ukraine and the increasing numbers of people seeking international protection in Ireland, the State has mobilised to provide accommodation to over 100,000 additional people in the past 24 months.

The challenges facing us in this regard are increasing. January and February saw the highest number of monthly international protection applicants on record. As many people now claim international protection in six weeks as did annually prior to Covid. At the same time, accommodation contracted by my Department faces opposition. Sometimes, that is protest. Sometimes, it is the blocking of access. Sometimes, it goes as far as acts of arson. All of this acts to further restrict the available pipeline of accommodation.

These trends and challenges are not unique to Ireland. Across Europe, we can see other countries trying to grapple with migration. After many years of receiving comparatively few international protection applicants, the past two years have seen Ireland move in line with what other European countries are receiving per capita.

I wish to be clear, in that the right to claim international protection is a human right. A person who comes here has a right to make an application for protection and to make his or her case. This is fundamentally a humane act and we must be proud as a country of being able to provide that right.

The old system by which we processed individuals' international protection claims and accommodated people while their claims were being adjudicated on is no longer fit for purpose. That is why the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and I have been working to reform the process. It will be on this basis that I will take the new approach to the provision of accommodation to the Cabinet next week.

I wish to speak specifically about the situation on Mount Street and the move to Crooksling on Saturday. Since last December, the State has been unable to provide accommodation to all male international protection applicants. As everyone knows, this challenge is becoming increasingly difficult. Although the majority of those who have not been offered accommodation are not rough sleeping, a growing number have been rough sleeping recently, with many congregating at the International Protection Office on Mount Street. The situation there is entirely unacceptable and has been worsening in recent weeks. This was rightly highlighted by many Oireachtas Members and councillors, as well as by NGOs that I engaged with directly and that provide direct support at Mount Street. As a result, I instructed my officials to examine what emergency, immediate measures could be put in place to offer at least 24-hour security along with access to toilet and shower facilities, food and health services, working in the absence of enough available beds coming through for adult males in particular.

The site at Crooksling was immediately available, as it is already State owned, has a full suite of security measures in place and is adjacent to public transport in and out of Dublin. The suggestion that the move to Crooksling was in any way linked to St. Patrick's Day is entirely wrong. The additional facilities at Crooksling became operational last Saturday. As soon as the site was ready to receive international protection applicants, I sought to have them moved there. Basic as it is, the availability of toilets, showers, regular meals and access to healthcare and other services in a secure and protected location is a far better situation than the one that exists on Mount Street. My sole focus was on ensuring a safe, secure and serviced sited for those who were unaccommodated. In a crisis situation like this, nobody is thinking of the date, nobody is thinking of visuals.

I have to address some of the rampant misinformation that was shared over the weekend. The shared photo of a filthy toilet, purporting to show the only toilet on the site, was untrue. The suggestion that there were no indoors areas for those staying there was not true. The suggestion that there was no food available on Saturday was not true. Crooksling has an indoor area and facilities to charge phones, catered food is available, and there are washing machines, 15 toilets, six showers and a full suite of security. Additional facilities, such as an on-site kitchen, are being provided now. Services are being provided from this weekend, including health services and access to other social services.

Again, the site at Crooksling is basic but it is an improvement on the unacceptable situation at Mount Street. I understand the frustration felt by those who have come to Ireland seeking shelter and I accept that we are failing to meet their basic needs but my Department, the Minister of State, Deputy O'Brien, and I are working as hard as we can to address the situation.

Three years ago, we set out the White Paper to end direct provision, a policy designed around 3,500 people seeking international protection each year. The landscape has changed radically since then, with an additional 100,000 people seeking different types of protection here in the intervening period. These numbers were unimaginable in early 2021. The challenges facing us at the moment are a function of the system we operate, and as that system has grown, it has become harder to reform. It is clear to me and colleagues across the Government that the scale of the challenge now demands a response of similar scale. I will be bringing the new accommodation strategy to Cabinet next week. That strategy will set out the measures to activate additional resources of the State to bring this situation under control. In the broadest sense, it will be about moving away from the current over-reliance on private providers for accommodation towards ensuring there is a stock of State-owned accommodation. It will ensure better quality accommodation, better control of the accommodation pipeline, better value for the taxpayer and, crucially, some choice over the location of accommodation. It will also include immediate measures to address the current crisis which, if implemented, can deliver additional accommodation within months. It will aim to give the State greater management over the stock of international protection accommodation in terms of location, distribution, costs, delivery of services and consideration of impact on communities. Finalising this policy has taken longer than I would have liked but I am confident it will take us out of the current unacceptable situation.

I note that the motion makes reference to vacant beds within IPAS. I can understand the appeal of the idea that there is some simple solution here and that the Government could resolve the situation but for some reason has chosen not to do so. It is totally inaccurate to say that there are available beds at scale within the IPAS system. Every week, we get 450 to 500 people seeking international protection. We got that last week, and we will get it this week and next. Deputy Whitmore speaks about 2,000 available beds but those beds will be gone in four weeks' time. We plan ahead-----

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