Dublin City Council has rejected a repeated claim by Tánaiste Simon Harris that a significant number of people presenting as homeless do not have a housing right in Ireland.
On Monday night, the council passed a motion challenging the Minister for Finance’s remarks which he first made to The Irish Times last month and which he repeated last week.
Mr Harris was defended at the meeting by Independent councillor Malachy Steenson, who said “for once, I actually agree with the Tánaiste”.
Mr Harris said last month that “a lot of people who are in emergency homeless accommodation, or certainly some people who are in emergency homeless accommodation, don’t have a housing right in Ireland”. In a Substack post last week which called on centrist politicians not to “shirk” the immigration debate, Mr Harris reiterated the claim and said that “more and more people who are not Irish citizens are finding themselves in emergency homeless accommodation”.
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“This number is increasing all the time. We do not have a legal obligation to provide many such people with housing, though of course we act with compassion towards anyone without a home,” he said.
An emergency motion tabled by Labour councillor Darragh Moriarty, which was adopted by Dublin City Council in its monthly meeting on Monday, said the council rejects Mr Harris’s “baseless claim”.
It said the council fully supports the position of Mary Hayes, Director of the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE), who told this newspaper “anyone who presents for and is provided emergency accommodation has a right to housing or establishes that right very quickly”.
The motion also called on the Lord Mayor to write to the Tánaiste “to defend the position of the DRHE and call out the Tánaiste’s blatant attempts to blame migrants for his Government’s own failings.”
The motion was agreed by councillors, with Sinn Féin and the Green Party speaking in favour of it. Fine Gael councillor Danny Byrne said his party “recognises everyone presenting as homeless should be accommodated immediately”.
Mr Byrne said emergency accommodation is provided to those without immigration status to prevent rough sleeping. “Though access to long-term housing support depends on lawful residence,” he said.
A number of housing and immigration groups including the Irish Refugee Council and Focus Ireland have expressed concern about Mr Harris’s remarks and sought clarification.
Mr Harris was defended at the council meeting by Mr Steenson.
“For once, he’s actually told the truth, something we’ve been telling him for years,” Mr Steenson said.
Mr Steenson, who is anti-immigration, said “no non-national in this State should be provided with accommodation ahead of national people ... ahead of those who have been here for generations. And that is simply the way it should be.”
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