Plans to build modular homes for asylum seekers while homeless Irish people have nowhere to go are the reason “people are angry”, Kerry TD Michael Healy Rae has said.
Yesterday, Cabinet approved a new strategy to increase the number of beds available for international protection applicants and decrease the State’s reliance on hotels.
The plan aims to deliver 28,000 State-owned beds by 2028 - with vacant offices converted into housing and modular homes built.
On The Pat Kenny Show, independent TD Michael Healy Rae said he thought the strategy would leave many people “scratching their heads”.
“They will be saying, ‘Why can't we do this for the 13,000 homeless Irish people who are on our system and who we cannot source accommodation for?’
“I’m not coming on your radio programme to pit one against the other or to be divisive.
“I want to be inclusive and I want to ensure there’s a thing called fair play and balance for everybody.”
Deputy Healy Rae insisted Kerry County Council is “proactive” when it comes to development and claimed it would be happy to build modular homes for locals if given the chance.
“The Department has said, for instance, they will build modular accommodation on State-owned land,” he said.
“Why can we not say to people that are homeless Irish people, ‘We will build modular homes for you on State-owned land’?
“We have 4,000 housing applicants, for example, in County Kerry - some of these have been made to wait eight, 12, 15 years on a list - hopelessly waiting to be given local authority accommodation.
“Why not say to that person, we will build a modular home on State-owned land? God knows, we have enough of it.”
'A long period of time'
Irish Refugee Council CEO Nick Henderson described the strategy overall as “good news” but said he had a number of concerns.
“One is that it will take four years - which is a long period of time,” he said.
“Two, we don’t know that there is the funding yet available to implement this strategy.
“Three, that it doesn’t, we think, address the current problem of 1,500 people without accommodation.”
“The numbers are far in excess of anything we have experienced before.”
The Government is doing “everything it possibly can” to house asylum seekers but the numbers arriving are “unprecedented” – Micheál Martin.— NewstalkFM (@NewstalkFM) March 27, 2024
Speaking on his way into Cabinet yesterday, Tánaiste Micheál Martin said the Government is doing “everything it possibly can” to provide people with accommodation as soon as they arrive.
“But the numbers are unprecedented; if you look at the numbers, more asylum seekers came in in the last two years - 2022 and 2023 - than came in between 2013 and 2020," he said.
“So that is the scale of it. The numbers are far in excess of anything we have experienced before – hence the pressures.”
In 2023, 13,227 people lodged international protection applications in Ireland.
Main image: Michael Healy-Rae addressing media on the plinth outside Leinster House. Image: Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie
