Asylum seeker housing: Focus now on larger, State-owned centres, says Coveney

The State is to take a more “structured” approach to accommodating refugees and asylum seekers after a new plan is brought to Cabinet, Minister for Enterprise Simon Coveney has said.

The Fine Gael TD told RTÉ's The Week in Politics programme there will be a “shift away over time” from a reliance on private accommodation to State-owned or leased accommodation.

He said the new approach will be one “where we have a lot more control over that property so we have a more structured way to accommodate people seeking international protection”.

The Minister said the plan would come either before the end of January or very early in February and would focus on establishing “larger, State-owned accommodation centres – a bit like we have seen in Citywest”.

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Mr Coveney said the Government would also move forward with plans to offer further supports to areas that have accommodated large numbers of asylum seekers and refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine and elsewhere.

He said there will be a “focus on ensuring we put services, supports and financial benefits and assistance in place for those counties ... we hope to do a lot more and the detail of that I hope will be available in early February”.

Sinn Féin foreign affairs spokesman Matt Carthy said consideration had to be given that “goes beyond an availability of a particular building”, accusing the Government of making its response up as it goes along.

Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín said that “Government incompetency is at the heart of this plan”, accusing the Coalition of a lax attitude towards monitoring how those seeking international protection were coming into the country and where they were coming from.

He said that 5,000 people were waiting more than two years for a first decision to be made on their application to remain in Ireland.

People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith said there was a problem in rural Ireland and in cities with services, but the onus was on Government to “deal with the myths” about asylum seekers being a danger to women and children because they “are coming very deliberately from a cohort who know what they’re doing”.

“This is really serious stuff, but it’s becoming normalised,” she said.

Mr Coveney said the Government acknowledged that communication needs to improve, and criticised Sinn Féin for what he said was a suggestion that the status afforded to those arriving from Ukraine be “recategorised”.

He also defended the Government’s approach to upcoming referendums on family and care, saying they were “not complicated” and that the country would be “well able” to focus on the relevant issues before the vote in March.

He defended the wording of the proposed amendment, including granting constitutional protections to families based on “durable” relationships, saying it was always likely that it would be challenged in the courts and that the Coalition was acting on “a lot of legal advice” with regard to the wording.

Mr Toibin said the referendums were “some kind of marketing flag waving” by the Government.

Ms Smith criticised the Coalition for not joining a South African case at the International Court of Justice alleging that Israel is conducting genocide in Gaza.

“They won’t back this because they’re worried about the semantics around genocide,” she said, repeating calls from People Before Profit to boycott the Taoiseach’s traditional St Patrick’s Day visit to the White House due to America’s support for Israel.

Mr Coveney said the way to proceed was not to isolate Ireland internationally and “instead use the relationships we have in Washington, Brussels, and indeed in Tel Aviv and Ramallah, to work towards an end to this nightmare”.

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