Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge that today is United Nations World Refugee Day when we stand in solidarity with those fleeing war and persecution. It is all the more timely, then, to raise today the ongoing failure by the Government to provide accommodation for those who have come here seeking refuge. In recent weeks, I have repeatedly raised the plight of those international protection applicants left with no choice but to sleep in tents along the canal or in public parks and streets. These people have been left with no option but to do so, yet they are now being threatened with prosecution when they do sleep in tents along the canals. We are seeing the Government erect miles of security fencing and the closing off of public spaces in the absence, it seems, of any coherent plan to provide accommodation. When are we going to see accommodation being provided for those left without it and the removal of the security barriers and their replacement with a coherent plan to provide accommodation?

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