New refugee centres may not be identified before June elections

The Government may not identify locations for proposed new reception and accommodation centres for asylum seekers before the local and European elections, according to Government sources familiar with preliminary discussions on the subject.

Under plans being drawn up by Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman, which a Government spokesman said on Tuesday would be completed within the next two weeks, it is proposed that about six large reception and accommodation centres for asylum seekers will be established by the State as a response to the current refugee accommodation crisis.

A spokesman said that once Mr O’Gorman brings his plan to the Government “work will begin on site selection”. However, he could not say that any sites would be identified before the June elections, and a number of senior Government sources said this would be unlikely. “We don’t have a set time for how long the work will take,” the spokesman said.

Ministers are acutely conscious of potential local opposition to accommodation centres for asylum seekers. However, they also know that Ireland has legal obligations to accept people who claim asylum, or international protection, and accommodate them while their applications are being processed.

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Currently male asylum seekers are not being provided with accommodation, with the result that many are sleeping in tents on the streets of Dublin.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told the Dáil on Tuesday that more than 1,000 people have arrived since the start of the year seeking international protection. About 600 have not been provided with accommodation, he said.

“In this emergency scenario we are doing the best we can to find any accommodation we can, with preference being given to women and children,” Mr Varadkar said. “The medium-term plan is to reduce the number of arrivals by enforcing our rules, but we need to be realistic about the difference that will make. It might not be huge, but we need to enforce our rules and demonstrate they are being enforced.

“We will have bigger centres. There will be a small number around the country that people can be accommodated in while a decision on their case can be made more quickly,” he said.

An expert group recently warned the Government that it “could and should do a lot more” to allay fears about the arrival of asylum seekers, including avoiding last-minute engagement with communities where it is planning new accommodation centres.

The report by the Expert Advisory Group on ending direct provision, which was submitted to Mr O’Gorman last week, is understood to warn that communities need to be engaged much earlier in the process than has been the case with some centres.

Meanwhile, Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys will on Wednesday take the committee stage of the legislation to reduce social welfare payments to Ukrainians. The payment are being cut from the standard unemployment assistance rate of €232 a week to the standard rate of assistance for asylum seekers, of €38.80 per week. It is expected that once the legislation is passed the reduced payment will come into operation in early February.

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