Plan to clear makeshift camp on Mount St with ban on tents to be enforced

A ‘tent city’ has sprung up at the International Protection Office in Dublin city as more than 1,700 asylum seekers have been left without an offer of accommodation from Ireland.

Taoiseach Simon Harris told the Dáil there are plans to provide a safer setting for asylum seekers camped there once "we clear Mount Street”.

He said: "We do not live in a country where makeshift shanty towns are allowed to just develop."

Justice Minister Helen McEntee told RTÉ’s Six One News: “Once people are moved, measures will be put in place to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.”

She said that asylum seekers sleeping rough on Mount Street will be provided shelter elsewhere

“We have to make sure people who are vulnerable, people who are sleeping in tents on our streets, that they have accommodation,” she said.

“We’ve had many meetings over the last number of weeks, in particular in the last week on this and they will be provided with that accommodation.

“When they are provided with that accommodation, it’s also really important that we don’t see scenes like we’re seeing now at Mount Street again, that it cannot re-emerge, that we have hundreds of tents – not just outside the International Protection Office - but outside people’s homes, outside people’s businesses.”

Simon Harris told the Dáil that once asylum seekers are offered safe shelter elsewhere, tents will not be allowed to be erected after that point.

“Once we clear Mount Street and provide people with a safer setting and access to sanitation, we do need to make sure that the laws of the land are applied and it's not allowed to happen again.

"Because we don't live in a country where makeshift shanty towns are allowed just to develop.

"So I'm telling you very clearly, the plan is to provide the people on Mount Street with better accommodation and access to sanitation.

He was responding to Labour leader Ivana Bacik in the Dáil who said the Government's immigration plan has "failed".

"The clearest evidence of that failure is just around the corner. Hundreds of people sleeping in tents and makeshift shelters in desperately unsanitary conditions on Mount Street," she added.

"I was there again this morning, meeting with some of those people, also speaking with local residents and traders who are sympathetic to the desperate plight of those in tents but also deeply frustrated at the deteriorating situation, with more and more tents each day.

"No access to sanitation, no sign of any action from government. It is inhumane and unsustainable."

Around 200 people are currently sleeping tents on Mount Street, Grattan Street and nearby alleyways. The tents were cleared just before St Patrick's Day and asylum seekers were brought to a site in Crooksling in the Dublin mountains. However, many returned with tents appearing back at the site later that day.

Residents and businesses in the Mount Street area of Dublin city are currently threatening legal action over the expanding migrant ‘tent city’ that is now taking up both sides of the road and the surrounding laneways.

One restaurant operating in the area has said it will be forced to close if the situation is not resolved.

It is claimed the Departments of Integration, as well as the International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) and the International Protection Office (IPO) and Dublin City Council have “passed the buck” and shown “a lack of responsibility” on the matter.

Residents and businesses in Mount Street, Madison Court, Grattan Court, Grattan Court East, Grattan Hall, Power’s Court, the South Georgian Residents’ Association, and Verschoyle Court have now formed a network.

They want to see the encampment gone within the next month “to a more appropriate space of accommodation or interim shelter”.

If this does not happen, they will seek legal relief in the courts on the grounds that access, safety, privacy, and health concerns are affecting residents' reasonable enjoyment of their properties.

Today's News in 90 seconds - 30th April 2024

They said local people who are renting are being forced to consider leaving, and that property owners can't rent or sell their properties.

“There are around 220 tents there now, some with more than one person in occupancy. The camp has now spread to both sides of the road and people are having to walk on the roadway to get around them,” said South Georgian Core Residents’ Association chairman Kevin Byrne.

“Living in the city centre you do get used to one or two tents, and Dublin City Council has generally managed to keep rough sleeping to a minimum, but this is a tent city. It is completely out of control and expanding.”

“It is affecting residents, it is affecting businesses, and it is affecting tourism as well as gaining international press attention.”

“We think our requests are reasonable ones that are being unheard. It is well-past crisis point,” he added.

"We have great sympathy for the humanitarian situation the refugees find themselves in, and are supportive of refugees seeking asylum in Dublin, but we do not accept that an encampment of tents around our neighbourhood is acceptable or even legal.

"For over a year the residents and businesses have been contacting the Government agencies responsible to try and improve the situation. We have been individually ignored by Dublin County Council, IPAS, Minister O'Gorman's office and the Gardai in terms of their strategy and approach to the issue.

“Residents are being forced to live in untenable and unsafe conditions while still obliged to pay property taxes, as the property value has crashed for owners. Protests and tensions are rising, further challenging the stability and safety of all involved,” Mr Byrne explained.

Ruth and Chris Hamilton have been running the Mamma Mia restaurant on Grattan Street for nearly 15 years, and have seen the camp creep from Mount Street to their door in recent weeks.

“With the current situation for the last 14 months it’s just horrific for our business. Our profit is down over 60pc and our customers are nervous coming in to us, our staff are very nervous and we have to come up in the evening and help them lock up,” said Ruth.

“There’s no answers whatsoever from Government and Dublin City Council who still expect us to pay full rates, full water charges, and full street furniture charges.”

“It’s just not feasible to keep going at this rate and unfortunately if things don’t change we’re going to have to close in August,” she added.

Michael Finlay has been running The Punnett Food Emporium on Mount Street for ten years.

“It’s affecting the area massively, and it’s growing at a rate that it’s just impossible for people to ignore it,” he said.

“It’s quite unbelievable. I never thought I’d experience something like this in the city centre, but it’s having a massive affect on people in the camp and in the area like the residents and the local businesses, and the people working in the offices.”

“I do feel like we’re reaching a tipping point here where tensions, concerns, anxieties are running so high that I do fear for what’s coming down the track if it isn’t dealt with immediately,” he added.

The group wants Dublin City Council to consult with it on decisions and plans in relation to the camp, and Minister Roderic O'Gorman's office to communicate and work with it on solving the situation to the satisfaction of local residents.

It also wants to liaise with the Civil Service Union to discuss the IPO office being resituated or repurposed closer to spaces in which asylum seekers can receive adequate and humane conditions, rather than in the middle of main thoroughfares of Dublin city.