Fencing erected along Dublin’s Grand Canal in recent months is “exclusionary, racist and classist” and represents the “deliberate exclusion of certain groups from public spaces”, a coalition of social justice and political representatives have said.
The Take Back Our Spaces Coalition, which includes members of the Community Action Tenants Union (CATU), Social Rights Ireland, Queer Intifada and People Before Profit, have called for a “humane and constructive solution” to the use of fencing along south Dublin’s Grand Canal that was erected to prevent asylum seekers and homeless people camping in the area.
The fencing, which stretches from Grand Canal Street near the Google Docks, to Windsor Terrace in Portobello, started going up in late May after more than 100 asylum seekers were evicted from a camp on the banks of the water. Some of the fencing was temporarily pulled down in mid-July following a protest, but was quickly reinstated by gardaí.
Erecting this fencing “disproportionately affects vulnerable groups such as asylum seekers, the homeless population and working-class people,” said the Take Back Our Spaces Coalition in a letter addressed to Waterways Ireland, Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman and Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien.
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The fencing is “not a solution but rather a symptom of a much larger problem – the failure to address the needs of the most vulnerable in our society”, says the letter, adding that the barriers are “tools of division and exclusion” that are used to “weaponise the immigration issue” and “divide working-class communities”.
It also noted that €30,000 per week was being spent on “turning these spaces into sites of exclusion and hostility”. Waterways Ireland confirmed that maintaining the fencing does cost about €30,000 per week but noted that they had not received any formal complaints about the fences.
The organisation acknowledged that using fencing along the canal was “not ideal, but it is necessary to mitigate risk to health and safety, which is our over-riding concern”.
“Having to erect temporary fencing along the canal is not something we had ever envisaged and we are committed to fully reopening all sections of the Grand Canal as soon as possible,” said a statement from Waterways Ireland.
The organisation said it had met representatives from local communities to discuss how the canal amenity could reopen and that options, including a landscaping and biodiversity programme of work, were being examined as potential solutions. Work on this programme “will begin on the ground in October”, said the statement.
Asked to comment on the coalition’s letter, a department of housing spokesman shared the Waterways Ireland statement and added that Budget 2024 dedicated €4.1 billion in exchequer funding to housing programmes.
The Department of Integration had not responded to a request for comment at time of publication.
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