CORI seeks urgent meeting with Government on asylum-seekers

The Conference of Religious of Ireland, which represents the Catholic religious orders, has sought an urgent meeting with the Government and social partners on the asylum-seekers' issue.

In a letter to the Taoiseach, CORI's Justice Commission expressed its growing concern at the range and scale of problems emerging.

Father Sean Healy of the commission said it was felt that a meeting of Government and social partners "could harness the resources of the social partners at a variety of levels in the service of an enlightened and appropriate response to the current situation".

He said that, under the social partnership model, seemingly intractable problems such as emigration had been solved, and he felt such resources should be made available to solve the asylum-seekers' problem.

He drew attention to the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness which states that "policy on providing for asylum-seekers' needs would be developed in consultation with Government Departments, State agencies, NGOs and social partners."

The proposed meeting could be called under this commitment, Father Healy said.

Over 100 asylum-seekers will be based in Limerick within two weeks and 300 more will follow if suitable accommodation is found. The first group will be placed at Barrington's Hostel. They are from Romania, Nigeria, Algeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola and Poland.

Ms Collette Morey, of the Directorate for Asylum Support Services, said they were responding to a crisis situation caused by a shortage of accommodation in Dublin. She added: "There has been tremendous co-operation from a number of organisations in Limerick."