Special package for 10 areas with highest number of refugees and asylum seekers

The 10 areas in Ireland under the most pressure due to the arrival of refugees and asylum seekers will be provided with a special package of supports which could see extra resources given for health, education and policing.

Amid concern within Government about the increasing number of protests outside buildings due to be used to accommodate asylum seekers and refugees, all Government departments have been asked to compile a list of options of what extra supports could be given to the 10 districts with the highest number of refugee and asylum seeker arrivals.

The work is being led by the Department of Taoiseach, and is at a very early stage with Ministers discussing the plans during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

Asked where the 10 districts would be, a Government spokesman said the Department of Integration would be examining this. The spokesman said no figure had yet been put on the cost of the package for the 10 districts, and that “scoping work” would be needed before a final cost was arrived at.

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Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said on Tuesday that he was “asking all Ministers to come together to take the 10 districts in the country that have the highest proportion of people from Ukraine and people seeking international protection and to put together a special package to help those areas that are under pressure”.

“We have done that to a certain extent already with the Community Recognition Fund but I think we need to do more to help out, to increase resources around health, around education, around policing, and to respond to the genuine concerns that people have when there is a large increase in the population.”

The issue of immigration was also a dominant topic in a lengthy meeting of the Fine Gael parliamentary party on Tuesday. Mr Varadkar told the meeting that he would “always make the case that it is a good thing for Ireland in the round. Were it not for migration, we would not have the public services we have or as strong an economy.”

He said he “wanted a migration system that is welcoming and fair” but also wanted to be “firm with those who try to come here illegally or take advantage of our generosity”.

A source said the plan was to progress the work quickly, bring the proposals to a Cabinet committee and then to a full Cabinet meeting in the coming months.

Meanwhile, the Government has agreed “in principle” to support a plan to purchase a disused hotel in Roscrea as a “community hotel” as part of moves to defuse tensions over the accommodation of asylum seekers in the town.

Jackie Cahill, the Fianna Fáil TD for Tipperary, presented the plan to Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman at a meeting on Tuesday. Mr Cahill said Mr O’Gorman had indicated there was agreement in principle among the Government parties to support the project.

Mr O’Gorman has been holding talks with local representatives against the backdrop of tensions in the town after resistance to a plan to accommodate up to 160 asylum seekers in the hotel.

“We put forward this proposal today that a community-based hotel would be an ideal solution, with the profits of the hotel going back into the community,” Mr Cahill said. “To me this ticks numerous boxes as regards Government policy, and putting a hotel back in the town centre which can only help with the commercial revitalisation of the town centre,” he said.

Mr Cahill said Fianna Fáil councillor Michael Smith had held discussions with the auctioneer appointed to oversee the sale of the closed hotel with a view to the State purchasing it, refurbishing it and reopening it as a community hotel.

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