Robert Troy
Ceist:1. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on migration, integration and Ukraine will meet next. [18285/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 21 May 2024
Ceisteanna (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
John Lahart
Ceist:2. Deputy John Lahart asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on migration, integration and Ukraine will meet next. [18286/24]
Amharc ar fhreagra
Richard Boyd Barrett
Ceist:3. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on migration, integration and Ukraine will meet next. [21326/24]
Amharc ar fhreagra
Paul Murphy
Ceist:4. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on migration, integration and Ukraine will meet next. [21329/24]
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Mick Barry
Ceist:5. Deputy Mick Barry asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on migration, integration and Ukraine will meet next. [21360/24]
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Jim O'Callaghan
Ceist:6. Deputy Jim O'Callaghan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on migration, integration and Ukraine will meet next. [21561/24]
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Bríd Smith
Ceist:7. Deputy Bríd Smith asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on migration, integration and Ukraine will meet next. [21747/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraFreagraí ó Béal (13 píosaí cainte)
I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 7, inclusive, together.
The Cabinet committee on migration, integration and Ukraine was established on 9 April to oversee the development and delivery of a whole-of-government response to the system of international and temporary protection for those arriving in Ireland from abroad, including international and domestic policy options, accommodation and other supports, integration, community engagement and public communications. This committee is assisted by the senior officials group, which is chaired by the Department of the Taoiseach. Through this mechanism, all Departments and agencies, as well as local government, are working to co-ordinate the State's response. The first meeting of the Cabinet committee, which I chair, took place on Thursday, 2 May. The Cabinet committee is scheduled to meet again this week, on Thursday, 23 May. I also chaired meetings specific to Mount Street and international protection accommodation on 25 April and 9 May respectively.
Since February 2022, more than 142,000 people from Ukraine and international protection applicants have come to Ireland seeking protection. On 14 May, Government agreed a number of measures to respond to the growing number of people seeking protection in Ireland. Beneficiaries of temporary protection from Ukraine in State-provided serviced accommodation should receive the same level of payment regardless of when they arrived. This work is being advanced by the Ministers for Social Protection and Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. The entitlements of international protection applicants will be reviewed within six weeks. There will be targeted workplace inspections in sectors or firms where there is an increased risk or reports of non-compliance with the range of employment and workplace requirements and permit regulations. The Minister for Justice will further review the safe countries list, visa-free travel and airline fines. The Minister will then report to Government on the outcome of these reviews. State-owned locations for tented accommodation will be utilised in advance of the medium-term strategy commencing.
The Government is also making every effort to improve the international protection process and has introduced an accelerated process for particular categories of applicants, including those from safe countries. We are working to accommodate people seeking shelter against a backdrop of unprecedented demand. However, the situation remains deeply challenging, particularly as the available supply of accommodation for international protection applicants has very seriously diminished. In addition to the actions across Government to alleviate immediate pressures, work is also underway to develop a more sustainable State response when it comes to migration.
I looked back on statements that took place in the House in February of last year, when we discussed the migration challenges and the crisis that we face. Those who spoke on that occasion all referred to asylum system that is fair, efficient and incorruptible. Much of what the Government is doing now, with the implementation of the Dublin Convention, working to return people to the UK, reviewing the safe countries and aligning social welfare payments was advocated over 12 months ago. There was a delay in the Government's response. As a consequence, our system has been overwhelmed.
Last week, I met people who were seeking asylum in a centre in my constituency. We now have a situation where people are being asked to relocate when they have been in the same centre for 18 months and are integrating into the community. We have a centre in my constituency where people are being asked to walk 4 km on country roads in winter and summer in order to avail of public transport. We want people to work, get educated and contribute to society. How can they do that if they have to walk 4 km?
Another issue is the scheme to offer a room. My wife offered a room four different times but never received a reply. We had a baby and stopped offering the room for six months because we did not want anyone else in the house. Recently, we offered the room again. We identified that we had offered it three times. For that fourth time, someone was to get back to us in a week but it never happened.
Last week, representatives of 15 governments met in Copenhagen to discuss new solutions in respect of irregular migration. Ireland was not represented politically at that meeting. Why was that the case? Is it our intention to sign the letter that was written?
For generations, Irish people were the subject of foul racist stereotypes. Tory Governments in Britain specialised in scapegoating the Irish for problems that they themselves were responsible for. They implied that the Irish were a problem, and that there were too many of us. In fact, Irish people contributed significantly to building British society, particularly in the areas of housing and roads. We did the same in Ireland. Is the Government now leaning into the same tactics as the British Tories in scapegoating immigrants who are coming to this country? Obviously, we know that far-right groups have pushed this narrative. Is the Government now, in the face of an election, beginning to do it too, with talk of having to check immigration and the numbers of asylum applicants? Michael Taft has just written a brilliant paper showing essentially that our health service would collapse without immigrant workers. I was stunned by the figures he provided. People need to be aware of them. Some 51% of the people working in our health service are non-EU nationals. That numbers are 36% in information and communication, 24% in industry and 34% in other sectors. I could go on. I suggest that the Government needs to state clearly that immigrants are contributing positively to Irish society and if there is a problem with housing and accommodation, which there is, it is the political system and not immigrants that is to blame for that.
Almost one in four applicants for international protection are children. Some 6,755 children are living in direct provision. Their parents receive a payment for them of just €29.80 per week. The child poverty monitor 2024, published yesterday, reports that this falls well below a minimum essential standard of living. It says it is not enough, of course, to cover basic needs like food, healthcare, school supplies, clothing or footwear. It forces thousands of children with no responsibility for the situation that they are in to live in consistent poverty. The Government knows all of this. It is not news. The Government is planning not to end this deliberate policy of impoverishment and immiseration; the intention is to expand it instead. It is going to bring more children into this system. Ukrainian kids must be made equally miserable by having their payments also cut to €29.80. They must also be ground down to the same subsistence level as the kids in direct provision. The same sort of performative cruelty is on display as when the Government picks up and destroys the tents of vulnerable people who have almost nothing in this world just to show it is taking the issue seriously. How can the Taoiseach justify the cruelty? Are the children to be sacrificed, like the children drowning in the Mediterranean in the name of deterrence?
A far-right local election candidate is sharing copies on Twitter, or X, of what she claims are people's international protection applications. One is that of an alleged Palestinian applicant and seems to have been taken down now but at least another two are still up.
This is not the first time that alleged international protection applications have been shared on social media by the far right.
This is a serious matter. We are discussing vulnerable people. Will the Taoiseach ensure that an investigation is conducted into whether this material is real? If it is real, what measures does he intend to take to stop this situation from ever happening again?
The Taoiseach has spoken about a sustainable migration system and the idea of streamlining processing times for those trying to avail of international protection. We all want to see something that is fair, but it also needs to be efficient and enforced. The Taoiseach has spoken about how countries have been added to the list of safe countries. He has also spoken about how we have improved our processing times and what impact the latter has had. Will he provide an update on the matter? The Irish people want to see that we have a system that looks after those fleeing war, oppression and torture. When will we be able to move on from the chaotic system of the private sector dealing badly with people who are in a really precarious situation to the planned system of State-owned and fit-for-purpose international protection reception centres? We have an accommodation crisis, but we were living with that long before we were dealing with the current circumstances as regards migration.
I add my voice to those who have spoken about the positives of those who have come to Ireland. A large number of people have come from abroad on work permits. The work permit system across Europe may need to be examined. Our health system could not operate without it.
The western world, Russia and China need to address the fact that a destabilised world means a large number of people on the move.
I wish to raise two issues. The Abbey Manor Hotel in Dromahair in County Leitrim received some international protection applicants in recent months. More have come in the past week. The families have been accepted by everyone and I have every confidence that they will be integrated into the community, but the problem that arises wherever people arrive is one of ensuring we have adequate medical, transport and education services. Wherever applicants arrive, these are the services that are placed under pressure, so we need to ensure there are adequate services. I appeal to the Taoiseach to do that.
On the flip side, the Lough Allen Hotel and Spa in Drumshanbo, which is just down the road from the Abbey Manor Hotel, has Ukrainians living in it. There have been more than 300 people there for the past two years. The Ukrainian contract for that hotel will run out at the end of this month. The Ukrainians have been told that they all must leave. Many of these people are in schools or working locally and have integrated into the community. They are now going around trying to find somewhere to live. Like everyone else, though, they cannot find accommodation. By opening the doors and telling these families they have to leave the hotel and go into emergency provision somewhere, we are creating a serious problem. They are working for many employers. Will they end up in Cork, Dublin or somewhere else where they will put pressure on the accommodation situation? There is a great short-sightedness in closing accommodation that has been working well, thereby putting pressure on our housing system, which is already under serious pressure.
One of the main problems with the migration issue is the chaos of the Government’s approach to it. The Government does not know what is happening. The answers to many of my parliamentary questions show that the Minister for Justice either did not know the information, was not asking the questions or could not extract the information from the data. We are spending a great deal of money on an expensive process to differentiate between those who need help and those who do not. Those who do not need help are getting deportation orders, but 85% of those are voluntary deportations. According to a parliamentary reply that I have just received from the Minister, she rescinded 1,000 deportation orders just in the past two years. People might be waiting up to ten years to have their respective processes done at great expense to the State, but when the State decides they are not entitled to stay, the Minister for Justice turns around, rescinds those decisions and lets them stay. How can the Government have any credibility in this matter?
I will try to respond to some of those issues. Objectively and fairly, the Government has been responding in real time to a migration system that moved from one that was used to seeing about 3,000 to 4,000 people per year to one that, between international protection applicants and people from Ukraine, saw around 143,000 people over a period of time. The Government has taken a number of actions in real time to try to build those systems and respond. The expansion of the safe countries list is one matter I would point to. Faster processing times is another.
I will inquire about the offer of a rent-a-room scheme. Deputy Troy gave a particular example, but obviously I am very eager to see anybody who offers accommodation being taken up on that offer. I will also inquire about the Copenhagen meeting. I am not across the detail of it. I will come back to the Deputy directly about that.
There will be a consolidation of State-rented facilities. Deputies Troy and Kenny have raised this matter. We have to be very conscious that, where we have a reducing number of people from Ukraine in State-owned accommodation, we have to look at the total portfolio of properties that the State is using a lot of taxpayers’ money to rent. We need to see some hotels being put back into tourism use and public use. I am conscious that there are people, including families, involved and that this is a sensitive issue, but we need to be honest about it. As the number of people here from Ukraine goes down, we obviously cannot have a scenario where we have more facilities than we need and for which we continue to pay a great deal. I do not think that is common sense, and I do not think that the taxpayer would want to see us do that.
Let me say very clearly that I absolutely abhor racism in all its forms. I join with Deputy Boyd Barrett in acknowledging, on the record of this House, the very positive contribution that migrants make to this country. He used the example of our health service. One could use the example of the hospitality sector or schools. One could pick any example. We are a better country as a result of immigrants coming here, just like Irish people made other countries better. I fully accept and agree with that, but I also know this: we have to have a system that is rules based. We have to have the rules enforced, we have to have transparency around the rules and we have to have efficiency in terms of how the rules are applied for the credibility and sustainability of the system. There is not a country in the world that cannot do that.
The other point I would make - I think Deputy Ó Murchú referenced it - is that there are a number of ways of legitimately coming to a country. International protection is there for a very specific purpose. We should assess quickly whether a person has a right to stay or does not have a right to stay, give that determination and then act on it. There are other ways of coming to this country, including the work permit system. We need to keep challenging ourselves in terms of the work permit system and making sure that it is a viable route for many as well.
I completely disagree with Deputy Murphy's characterisation of what we did around Mount Street and at the Grand Canal. We nearly had a public health emergency at Mount Street. The Deputy will have read of some very significant situations that people were encountering. Every single person who was in a tent at Mount Street without access to proper sanitation got relocated to a better facility. It was not an ideal one, but a better one. I genuinely believe that there is a humanitarian element to this, and similarly at the Grand Canal location. Yes, tents are disposed of on the health advice that one cannot reuse them, but people are provided with a better level of shelter and access to sanitation. That is the motivation.
Regarding the decision we have taken in respect of people from Ukraine, we have provided a significant lead-in time, but we have only applied the decision to people in fully serviced accommodation - people who are being provided with free accommodation, free food, free utilities and, crucially, the right to work. There will be many people outside of that. Alternative forms of accommodation were not covered by the Government decision.
Regarding Deputy Barry's point, I will look into that. I am very concerned to hear that. I would be particularly concerned if it turned out to be real data. Data protection applies to everybody, so I will undertake to ask for that to be investigated. I will be happy to come back to the Deputy and provide an update.
I will send Deputy Ó Murchú a note on the progress we have made on processing times and the work we are doing to implement the new Government approach to accommodation.
Regarding Deputy Kenny's point, I met that group from Dromahair while I was in Sligo recently. I support the importance of communities getting services, particularly communities that want to welcome people and be supportive of them. All of the people I met were very reasonable and decent. They wanted to know whether we were going to support the community in terms of services. I will look into the issue relating to the Lough Allen hotel.
What about the 1,000 deportation orders?
I will have to get the details as regards that.
I have given the Taoiseach the details.
Sorry. The Deputy has given me the figure for the number rescinded. I will have to get the details as to why they were, which is an appropriate thing to do. This matter is quite a long way from the questions that were asked, so I do not have the information to hand, but the Minister for Justice of the day, whoever he or she is, has a role to play in the migration process and can make decisions, but I will find out the details and revert to the Deputy directly.