Taoiseach Simon Harris defends approach to asylum-seekers as migrants pitch tents in Ballsbridge park

Around a dozen asylum-seekers arrived at St Mary’s Church Park in Ballsbridge on Thursday night.

The men had been told by the International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) there was no longer accommodation available.

The group of men left the Ballsbridge area at around 9am yesterday. The park is close to Mount Street, where hundreds of tents had been pitched until Wednesday morning when the makeshift campsite was cleared in a multi-agency operation.

The Government has been struggling to accommodate the rising number of asylum-seekers arriving into the State.

On Wednesday morning, more than 200 asylum-seekers who had been living in tents outside the International Protection Office (IPO) were moved from the area to facilities at Citywest and Crooksling in Co Dublin.

However, a number of men who sought accommodation on Thursday were told none was available.

Speaking yesterday, Taoiseach Simon Harris said “makeshift encampments” on public roads and footpaths are illegal and “never the solution”.

Speaking in Belfast, Mr Harris said: “It’s also not in the interest of the people who are sleeping in those tents, people who don’t have access to proper sanitation. We did provide 290 people from Mount Street and those who appeared in Mount Street that day with accommodation, with shelter, with access to sanitation, with food, with a much better scenario than had been allowed to develop on Mount Street.

“I am very comfortable with the position that we took and I believe it was necessary in relation to that.

“People did turn up at the International Protection Office yesterday and there wasn’t accommodation for all people.

“IPAS does have contact details for all those people. It is working to try and provide accommodation solutions for all those people.

“I think what we saw in St Mary’s was a temporary thing being done by people who were being very humane in terms of trying to provide assistance on property that wasn’t public.

“We work at this every single day, but I need to be clear and honest with people coming to our country, we are doing our very best in a very difficult and challenging circumstances to provide accommodation. But accommodation isn’t always readily available, but we keeping working at it day by day.

“The conversation about migration can’t just be one about accommodation, because no matter how much accommodation you have, if it’s just a conversation about accommodation, accommodation will fill.

“It also has to be a conversation about faster processing times, about efficient and effective systems.”

Mr Harris said it is never too late for any democracy to “push back against misinformation, disinformation and indeed interference from abroad on occasion in relation to debate and discourse”.

“Migration is a really good thing, immigration is a good thing,” he added.

“Ireland is a better place for the many people who have come and made Ireland their home. They are working in hospitals, they are working in our hospitality sector and right across many sectors of the economy.

“So migration and immigration is a good thing and I think it’s really important that we say that and that we don’t seed that ground or create a vacuum for others to exploit.

“Having said that, I think people in Ireland, and I would imagine people in most countries, want to know there are rules in place. They want to know the rules are enforced, they want to know that the system is fair, that it’s firm, that it helps those who are entitled to help.

“That if someone comes to our country and goes through a processing system and isn’t entitled to be there, that that person is asked to leave in the first instance and made to leave if they don’t.”

Separately, the Taoiseach has said the homes of politicians should be out of bounds after an anti-immigration demonstration was staged outside his home.

Mr Harris said it was bedtime for his two young children when the protesters gathered outside his house in Co Wicklow on Thursday evening.

It was the latest in a series of incidents involving protests outside the homes of political figures.

It is understood the Taoiseach was not at home at the time as he had been attending a funeral.

The Fine Gael leader was asked about the incident on a visit to Belfast yesterday. “I don’t want to say too much about this and I don’t like describing those sorts of things as protest,” he said.

“I’ve a very clear view in relation to this. Whether it’s me, whether it’s an opposition politician, whether it’s anybody, I always think people’s families and people’s homes should be out of bounds. It was bedtime for my kids last night when this situation arose. I don’t think it’s appropriate.”