Taoiseach vows to ‘deal with’ new tent city as Grand Canal locals say system failing both residents and asylum seekers

The emergence of a new 'tent city' along the Grand Canal in Dublin was decried in the Dáil, with demands for a special debate.

Three Opposition parties, Sinn Féin, Labour and the Social Democrats, demanded answers from the Taoiseach, who said: "We will act in relation to the Grand Canal."

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said there were now 100 tents along the waterway and it was a deplorable, disgraceful situation.

"It is a monument to your abject failure to manage," she said.

Labour leader Ivana Bacik also raised the growing number of tents on the Grand Canal.

"Clearly this is inhumane, it is unsustainable, and your Government has failed to provide adequate accommodation," she said.

Jennifer Whitmore of the Social Democrats told Simon Harris: "All your policies to date have done is move tents from one part of the city to another.”

But the Taoiseach said he was "very pleased" with the outcome of the Mount Street clearance operation, adding that nearly 300 people had been provided with better facilities. "Good action was taken by good Government," he said.

"I'm telling you now we will deal with the Grand Canal. Action will be taken," he said.

"But we have to have a broader discussions about immigration that is not just about accommodation, because if we will provide more accommodation it will quickly fill up."

He claimed Sinn Féin local election candidates were saying they would end the open border policy, but he didn't know what they meant.

He claimed a prominent Sinn Féin TD had appeared in a video promising to close open borders – which led to angry interruptions by the main Opposition party, insisting the charge was untrue.

It came after local residents spoke out against the growing encampment of asylum seekers along the Grand Canal.

There are now scores of tents pitched at the Grand Canal following the deconstruction of the ‘tent city’ on Mount Street last week when nearly 300 people were provided with alternative accommodation.

Speaking to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Kevin Byrne, the chair of the South Georgian Core Residents’ Association said today that while locals welcomed the clearing of the streets surrounding the International Protection Office, the encampment along the Grand Canal nearby is a growing concern.

He said residents “can no longer tolerate a broken system that’s failing both asylum seekers and residents, spinning chaos onto the capital streets”.

The Taoiseach yesterday said a “multi-agency response” to the the encampment is ongoing and that the situation on the streets surrounding the International Protection Office will not be repeated at the Grand Canal.

He said the scenarios were not comparable as ‘tent city’ on Mount Street “was allowed to go on for weeks and weeks – months and months in fact” and it would “not be the situation in relation to the Grand Canal”.

Mr Byrne said residents do not see a distinction between both encampments and the situation on Mount Street got “out of control”.

He added that while residents were “grateful” that Mr Harris ended the “buck passing” between agencies that allowed it to escalate, they were “disappointed to see that so quickly after that, this new encampment started emerging just literally around the corner”.

“We would be concerned to see some of that buck passing between agencies coming back. It’s quickly growing, which we expected,” he said.

"It was reported to Waterways Ireland as soon as we saw tents appear there because we know from experience that if a small number are left it will quickly grow but we haven’t seen any action to resolve it yet.”

Mr Byrne said residents "absolutely” have sympathy for those who are seeking international protection in Ireland and must live on the streets due to a shortage of accommodation.

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“Throughout this we tried to put up with the situation on lower Mount Street initially out of sympathy with the men in the tents, I’m very conscious of that. We did so on the basis of assuming the responsible agencies would be quickly looking to get a handle on the situation that emerged there and that didn’t happen, it went on for 14 months.”

He added that residents are speaking out sooner on this occasion as they do not want to see the situation repeat itself and they see no distinction between both encampments.

“They’re effectively the same encampment, it has just moved around the corner. While we give (Mr Harris) credit for dragging the agencies together on this, we don’t want to see these two things be seen as distinct.”

Mr Byrne said residents in the surrounding areas would like to see the processing of asylum applications moved away from Mount Street as the International Protection Office “demonstrably can’t handle the flow” and facilitate the necessary “security, sanitation and other basic services”.

He added: “We can no longer tolerate a broken system that’s failing both asylum seekers and residents, spinning chaos onto the capital streets. That has to end.”