Campaign groups protesting against anti-asylum seeker barriers along Dublin’s Grand Canal are accusing the State of ‘abandoning the capital to chaos’.

A fresh protest is due to be held this weekend against the steel fencing that has been in place along the canal all summer.

The barriers were initially installed by Waterways Ireland after a multi-agency operation to remove asylum seeker tents from the banks of the canal in May.

The body has said the fencing, which stretches from Grand Canal Street to Portobello and aims to stop homeless people and asylum seekers pitching fresh tents, costs €30,000 per week to maintain.

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, South Georgian Core Residents Association Chair Kevin Byrne said residents have a huge amount of sympathy for people forced to live in tents – but authorities have had more than enough time to find a better solution than steel barriers.

“When this all started 18 months ago, we were very slow to raise this complaint out of sympathy for the people who were in the tents and we assumed the responsible agencies would do their job and over time deal with the responsibility,” he said.

“But as we saw on Mount Street, that went on for almost a year and, you know, we've no choice but to raise it.

“While we do have sympathy for the men in tents, this is going on a long time and the Government has had sufficient time to procure emergency responses.

“It's not good enough just to sacrifice the capital to chaos.”

'Chaos'

Mr Byrne said Government needs to get to grips with the “underlying issue” – which is that there are now over 2,300 homeless asylum seekers in Ireland.

“I don't think everyone appreciates the scale of the increase in rough sleeping in the city,” he said.

“So, before this crisis started months ago, there was typically less than 100 rough sleepers in Dublin at any given time.

“The Dublin Region Homeless Executive and the charities did a lot of hard work to keep those numbers low despite the housing crisis.

“The State has now abandoned thousands of asylum seekers in tents on our streets and just walked away.

“[Authorities] aren’t taking responsibility for the chaos it is creating.”

Dublin City Council workers performing a clean up operation after asylum seeker tents were removed from the banks of the Grand Canal, 30-5-24. Image: Leah Farrell / © RollingNews.ie

Saturday’s protest will be held outside the Department of Integration at Miesian Plaza on Baggot Street at 1pm.

It has been called by the Take Back Our Spaces Coalition, which last week labelled the barriers “exclusionary, racist and classist”.

'Sticking plaster'

Mr Byrne said the barriers were “only ever a sticking plaster approach” – and pointed out that residents and visitors have not been able to enjoy the canal for the entire summer.

“It reflects dreadfully on Dublin and it has changed habits,” he said. “People don't commute along the canal as much, they don't walk along it as much or sit and stroll as much.

“So, all those habits have been lost and it's a rare and scarce green space in the city.

“It is not just people in the area use it but also those who visit the city use it. We’ve been struck by how much love there is for the canals across the country.”

At the last protest against the barriers, many of them were torn down and left lying on the street.

Mr Byrne said he does not support that type of action – and encouraged people to engage with Waterways Ireland to “resolve this in an orderly way”.

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