Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Social Democrats, particularly Deputy Whitmore, for tabling this motion. One of the first words in the motion is "humanitarian". It is important that we remember that this should be at the centre of whatever policy we are trying to enact here.

The Government's responses and actions not only frame the national attitude to potential immigration but also underline the competency or otherwise of the State services to adequately manage and discharge the responsibilities we have given them. It is shameful that Ireland, a country where emigration has been so endemic and is so much part of our make-up, is in this position. Last week, the Taoiseach, trading on the moral authority of Ireland's experience of migration, gently excoriated his host in Washington to make the case to America, as forcefully as the occasion permitted, to use its moral authority to stop the continuing horrors in Gaza.

The motion calls on the Government to publish an audit of its international protection accommodation services identifying where vacant beds are available and if and how they are being used. Surely that information is available in Departments. Why has the Minister not been able to share that to date in the House?

I am old enough to remember when the Green Party promised to end direct provision. At the time, good, thinking people felt it was blight on our national reputation. Now it has suddenly become our national saviour in this situation. It is a marked improvement, for sure, from bussing people from Mount Street to the boonies to be hidden away for just one day while we celebrated our national identity around the world. "Out of sight, out of mind" is not a policy the people of this country want the Government to pursue.

The Government has continued to rely on the big problem, low competency defence that is endemic at present in our handling of housing, healthcare, the technological universities, transport - the list goes on. I know and have spoken to many Irish people who feel they are being let down by our shoddy second-rate infrastructure and services and, by implication, our instinct to offer a big, warm welcome to those currently under the spotlight.

The Minister previously announced that six national centres would be set up to manage international protection applicants. Why has there been a delay in getting this done? The Minister said he will get three centres done this year and three done next year. That does not sound like an emergency response. We have to look at how we are doing this and how it is affecting our reputation and unfortunately creating push-back around the country.

As children, we were all taught to look before you leap. It is clear from the site of approximately 150 tents being placed around Mount Street and the condition that the people in question found themselves in that the Government has shown a serious lack of understanding and process management.

Every time I have spoken about this humanitarian crisis - that is exactly what it is - I have said that we should have a pragmatic approach to taking in asylum seekers, accommodating them appropriately and ensuring those given leave to stay have significant opportunities presented to allow them to integrate fully into Irish society. I am not sure that is happening. I can tell the Minister what is not working, and well he knows it. Placing people into rural locations with little or no access to public services is not solving a problem but is, in fact, creating problems. Doing private procurement deals for the last available tourist beds in regional towns and villages is not solving a problem either but creating one.

Those trying to access Ireland under the international protection programme should not be placed in competition with the resident population who are also looking for access to accommodation and services, but this has clearly been a feature of the present roll-out. We are squeezing the economic potential out of some of the regional towns' tourism offerings with this ad hoc accommodation policy and inevitably stoking up and provoking people who have done so much to try to help in this crisis. The Minister needs to give serious time and capital consideration to providing centres. We need a new strategy around this. I heard the Minister's statement that he would announce something new next week. We will wait to see what that is. One simple thing we could do is expand the safe country list. Why are we not reflecting the safe country lists of our EU partners? That is the first thing we should do.

Second, we need to look at the opportunities for people to integrate in this country. We have seen in cities and towns across Europe and the world that if you bring people in and crowd them into one area, particularly people of the same population with the same language and you do not give them pathways to integrate or allow them an opportunity to quickly coalesce with the local population, you end up with a multicultural society in which there is not mixing. That is not what we want.

The Irish people are welcoming and want to remain welcoming. We have a number of centres in County Waterford and a number of populations who have integrated really well. It is heartening, when standing on the sidelines of GAA matches, to see the multicultural integration that is taking place. That is what we want to deliver, but we have to do it with respect. We need a system that works. We need to integrate those who are given leave to stay and we need to help those who are not given leave to stay to return to the places they came from.

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