Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 658: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of single people seeking refuge who have been moved to a town (details supplied) in County Mayo. [10598/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The Reception and Integration Agency, RIA, is responsible for the accommodation of asylum seekers. In replies to recent parliamentary questions I have outlined, in detail, current trends in asylum seeker numbers, i.e., a fall in the number of new applications, together with a fall in the number of families seeking asylum, and the consequent implications for the RIA. As a demand-driven organisation, it is incumbent on the RIA to respond to changing demands.

In the case of this centre, the RIA considered it to be suitable for possible reclassification from family to single person accommodation. As part of the reclassification of the centre, the RIA intended to relocate its families to other centres where they could benefit from special facilities for children and young people, including pre-school facilities. For a number of reasons, the RIA has agreed that the families with school-going children who currently reside at the centre should be allowed to remain there at least until the end of the current school year. The RIA has recently allocated a total of 17 males to the centre.

The centre has operated as an accommodation centre since December 2003 and has been well run, without incident, by its owners and their staff throughout this time. The RIA has in its accommodation portfolio 16 male-only centres and no significant issues have arisen at these locations. Single male centres have, in the past, operated in small villages where residents of the centres helped in a voluntary capacity with various community activities such as the annual clean up for tidy towns competitions.

The RIA is very much aware of the concerns and fears expressed by some residents in the town, through various fora, about the placement of male asylum seekers in the centre. The RIA does appreciate the degree of anxiety or unease that some local residents may feel if a centre profile is changed from women, children and small babies to single persons. It is the RIA's experience that, over time, such feelings dissipate as local residents come to know the individuals concerned and as their practical experience of the centre operation allays their initial concerns.