The Green Party has promised to deliver 14,000 beds for International Protection Applicants by building on State-owned lands.

Currently, there are over 30,000 asylum seekers in Ireland and in August over 2,500 of them were without State-provided accommodation.

On The Pat Kenny Show, party leader and Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman said that investments in accommodation centres would give the Government ‘better value for money’.

“We need to move away from the reliance on the private sector when it comes to the accommodation of international protection applicants – that's something that I've always highlighted,” he said.

“We're starting that process through the use of State land and also through an expression of interest process for the purchasing of large-scale institutional buildings as well.

“That will allow us [to better plan] where we're locating international protection applicants, it will also be better value for money in the State in the long-term.”

Gardaí at the Thornton Hall site as contractors begin preparations to convert the area into accommodation for international protection applicants, 13-8-24. Image: Leah Farrell / © RollingNews.ie

Minister O'Gorman said the immigration system was ‘not fit for purpose’ when he took up office and that now is the perfect time to implement reforms.

“As the number of Ukrainians seeking protection here falls, as the number of international protection applicants coming here falls, now is our opportunity to actually reform the system,” he said.

“That is a move away from using hotel accommodation to building and using state owned land and a migration agency that is a dedicated body overseeing the processing of people's applications and their accommodation as well.”

Housing

The party has also promised to deliver 50,000 homes per year - nearly 20,000 more than was built in 2023.

Minister O’Gorman described this as achievable thanks to planning reform and the recruitment of skilled labourers from abroad.

“The speed will come from the Planning Act that was passed recently,” he said.

“The builders and planners will come from the IDA (Ireland’s Foreign Direct Investment Agency) for skills.

“One of the proposals contained in our manifesto [is] about a State body that looks abroad and looks to bring the skills we need.

“In the same way the IDA looks abroad to get financial investment into the country, we're looking to bring skilled [workers] – whether these are Irish people who have gone abroad and we want to encourage them back, or other skilled professionals.”

Minister O’Gorman said these workers could be offered relocation packages to entice them to move to Ireland.